Pirated CDs: Kerala goes on strike, Bengal sells for Rs 40!

KOLKATA: ���Belaseshe���, ���Nakshal���, ���Roga Howar Sohoj Upay��� and ���Boudi.com��� are still running at theatres. But hop into any DVD stall outside Tollygunge Metro station, Gariahat pavements, Jadavpur 8B bus stand or Chandni market and you will get all them together for just Rs 40. Prints of these CDs are almost perfect and the sound quality won���t let you down either. Ask if they have a pirated copy of ���Asha Jaoar Majhe��� and the peddlers come up with the promise of arranging for it ���soon���. After censor copies of a Malayali film got pirated in Kerala, close to 400 film theatres attached to the Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation (KFEF) were shut on Thursday demanding strong measures to curb piracy. Kerala even has an anti-video piracy cell. But back in Bengal, Tollywood neither has any such cell nor has it taken a cue from the KFEF move to stop piracy from spreading its tentacles.Kerala Film Producers��� Association president G Suresh Kumar recommended a similar anti-piracy cell for Bengal. ���Though I personally don���t support shutting down of theatres, it is important for every government to tackle the piracy problem. We have a cinema minister in Kerala as well. A cinema-loving state like Bengal should have one such minister too,��� he said.Speaking about the shutdown of theatres in Kerala, cinematographer Venu said, ���It all started when a censor copy of blockbuster Malayalam film ���Premam��� got uploaded on Youtube. Among those arrested were two 16-year-old students. Post this incident, collections of the film dropped by 50%. Kerala has a tradition of strong unions and they have proactively protested this.���Venu, who has shot Bengali films like ���Swapner Din���, ���Bagh Bahadur���, ���Lal Darja��� and ���Mondo Meyer Upakhyan���, said a proactive union in Bengal should help the industry in making the government take up piracy issues. Director Buddhadeb Dasgupta, however, feels that Bengal���s cine federations are hardly bothered. ���Earlier, it would take a month to get a pirated DVD of a Bengali film. Now, it takes just a week to spot such a copy in the market. In days to come, we might even get them before a film releases. Yet, the federation is silent,��� Dasgupta said.Kerala-based national secretary of AIFEC, Unni Krishnan, said, ���Nationally, we need strong legislation on anti-piracy. A person can get a bail if he is arrested for piracy. We would want this to be turned into a non-bailable offence.���Down South, cine federations had raised such an alarm about piracy that piracy has ceased to exist there. Back in Kolkata, Aparna Ghatak, secretary,Federation of Cine Technicians and Workers of Eastern India (FCTWEI), said, ���We want to take up the piracy issue but haven���t decided on our course of action.���Dasgupta feels the problem is about ���misplaced priorities���. According to him, ���Our government is also losing out on entertainment tax. Yet, no steps are being taken to curb this. Kolkata���s cine federation is busy trying to find how many technicians have been taken for a shoot. They can stall shootings to protest if numbers don���t match. But they don���t say a word against piracy that���s affecting the whole industry.��� On being asked why this glaring problem hasn���t been addressed by FCTWEI yet, Ghatak said, ���It hasn���t been majorly brought up here. We���ll support the federation in Kerala if they take a stand on this. Nationally, we will take up this matter in August when we have a meeting in Kolkata of the All India Film Employees Confederation.���