The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Beating pirates at their own game

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 01, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Beating pirates at their own game

Sudhish Kamath

Unique drive draws encouraging response

Stopping piracy.

CHENNAI: To beat pirates at their own game, VGP Video Vision has launched a unique promotional drive for the latest Tamil film DVDs in the international market.

After pricing original DVDs at almost the same cost as that of pirated DVDs and releasing them on the same day of the movie release, the distributors say there is no reason for anyone to pick up a pirated disc anymore.

The pirated versions of the latest Tamil films, where prints are recorded with a video camera smuggled into the movie hall, are usually sold under fake labels for about a pound or two in the UK market.

"These prints popularly known as `camera prints' have inferior video quality and poor sound, apart from shots of people in the crowd and the noise they make. But people buy them because they are available as soon as the movie releases in the theatre and at a cheap price. So we decided to give them good video quality at the same price and on the same day," says Bharathraj, director of VGP Video Vision.

The company launched its assault on pirates by releasing "Kalvanin Kaathali" with a price tag of one and a half pounds (about Rs.120), on the same day as of theatrical release in Europe.

"There has been an encouraging response. We have sold a few thousand copies already," he adds.

The features of the DVD, however, are just at the basic minimum.

Video quality

The video quality is low resolution but clear enough for home viewing and certainly much better than the pirated prints. There are no subtitles, DTS or 5.1 surround sound.

"Pirates sometimes manage to smuggle a good print right from the labs when the film goes for processing before release. But since they pack two or three unauthorised movies on one disc, the video quality is very poor. Ours is an authorised DVD, we have procured overseas distribution rights for lakhs of rupees and this is the only way to beat the pirates," says Bharath.

Three months after the date of theatrical release, the company would also bring out the regular version of the movie with all standard features.

This standard original version priced at nine pounds will give purists the ultimate home theatre experience. The cost of acquiring overseas rights ranges from Rs.10 lakh to Rs.20 lakh per area. With pirates spending virtually nothing to duplicate and sell copies, overseas distributors have no option but to go aggressive and beat them in the price war, explains Bharath.

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