Mollywood’s relentless fight against video and internet piracy seems to be yielding results.
Producers attribute the poor quality of pirated videos and the tracking of pirates by enforcement agencies to the decline of video and online piracy.
“The menace has come down considerably in recent times. Film lovers no longer want to watch pirated videos that lack visual quality. They would prefer watching it either on the big screen or through the high quality CDs and DVDs released officially,” said M. Renjith, general secretary of the Kerala Film Producers Association.
The uploading of camera prints of just-released movies had hit the industry badly forcing the stakeholders to join hands with the police in tracking down the culprits. Efforts to nab the pirates had failed earlier after the administrators of foreign domains refused to share details of the content providers operating out of the State.
Mr. Renjith pointed out that the producers and the police were not able to identify those responsible for uploading the content on certain websites.
“With the new software tracking down such illegal activities, there is a drop in viewers downloading and sharing such content. Moreover, the number of viewers watching such pirated content on select websites has come down thanks to the strengthening of surveillance by the cyber police,” he said.
Those who could not watch the film in cinemas are now picking up DVDs from the nearby store or taking it on rent from select shops. They can also watch it on television as entertainment channels bagging the satellite rights now insist on releasing it within six months of the movie release.
DVDs of the movies hence reach the market by the fourth month of the release offering viewers an all together new in-home experience. The producers said the DVD rights of movies with popular stars had not plummeted despite their failures at the box-office.
As per the industry estimates, the DVD rights of a hit movie could easily fetch anywhere between Rs. 15 lakh to Rs. 20 lakh to the producer. The average earnings from the sale of DVD rights continue to be around Rs. 10 lakh for a movie.
