Advertisement

CHENNAI: The tide has finally turned against movie pirates. And without any new anti-piracy laws, swift convictions or police raids.

Optical storage manufacturing giant Moser Baer recently pulled off a virtual coup by releasing a Tamil film catalogue at a price that is guaranteed to put a smile on movie buffs: Rs.28 for the CD pack and Rs.34 per DVD.

The catalogue of 101 films includes smash hits such as Rajnikanth-starrer "Baasha" and Kamal Hassan-starrer "Kadhal Parisu."

The first exclusive home video launch in Tamil was the Jeeva-directorial "Ullam Ketkume" that did its theatrical run recently.

Kamal Hassan launched the catalogue at a function organised at a five-star hotel recently.

Ratul Puri, managing director, Moser Baer India, and other senior representatives of the company were present.

Moser Baer had entered the home video scene only last month with a vision to "revolutionise" the circuit.

A press release issued by the company said that the potential for legal home video segment had grown considerably over the last few years owing to a proliferation of DVD players. Currently, the country had over 26 million DVD/VCD users and the sector was growing at a healthy clip of over 25 per cent.

However, the home video sector accounted for a meagre 7 per cent of the total film revenue of Rs. 7,900 crore a year.

Mr. Puri said that the initiative would encourage movie buffs to start their own library of home videos. Moser Baer has promised to distribute its discs at all major towns and cities in the State.

It now remains to be seen if the Tamil film industry will be able to streamline its home video business by coming out with a release date for the circuit similar to Hollywood.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail