Staying ahead of the pirates
G. ANANTHAKRISHNAN
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Can digital technology be used to fight the bootlegging menace. Ask Kamal Hassan.
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We talk of Swiss Bank accounts of politicians. Why would it happen if we had been awake?
Are we a nation of pirates or are we powerless consumers who buy cheap videodiscs because the film industry is caught in a time warp? This question would seem as relevant to those who seek out pirated discs of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith in New York as to youth furtively scouring the pigeonholes of Chennai's markets for DVDs of Tamil film hits.
In Hollywood, Steven Soderbergh has teamed up with 2929 Entertainment to direct six high definition films that will release in selected theatres, on DVD and on pay-TV on the same day. The logic is simple: if customers want to buy a DVD as soon as a film is released, provide it to them legally. India is a lot less digital and even less savvy about exploiting the market for entertainment products, though DVD and VCD players with Chinese lasers inside are sold at rock bottom prices in the electronics markets all over the country.
Indictment
How does it all add up for Bollywood and Kollywood? Answering the question on a Sunday morning was Kamal Hasan. Savouring his recent ``Mumbai Express" digital experience, Kamal muses that we are all proud pirates today. ``We talk of Swiss Bank accounts of politicians. Why would it happen if we had been awake?" he asks, in an indirect indictment of sections of the film industry that have failed to realise the value of digital entertainment commerce.
What was his experience with Mumbai Express? ``It was okay. I made some mistakes with digital technology," he says disarmingly. Kamal thinks new technologies are handled best by those who invented them. ``When we do it on our own, we are re-inventing it," he says.
But the central issue affecting the business today is piracy. ``Ultimately, if you see, the world will go more and more towards freely accessible material. That will be rather difficult for the businessman to understand," says Kamal. It may sound even more radical that he advocates far-reaching legislation to legitimise DVD home video, video libraries and pay-per-view when the only ``correct" position in Kollywood is to demand a crack down on piracy and video parlours and ask viewers to go to the theatres for high-priced screenings. Kamal looks at the pirated discs that are feeding the cheap video players as fake cola that is flowing freely because the real thing is not available. The production of pirated discs is also attracting a vastly higher number of players because there is not much risk to it, while the profits are huge.
He is all for the co-existence of theatres and home video (while many producers are not). Advanced technologies for digital projection, such as the ones used for ``Mumbai Express" and ``Sith" will serve to provide digital security against piracy and hence make legal home video much more attractive for business.
Easily found
Bootleg copies of the latest Tamil hits made from legal overseas releases are easily found in the DVD burrows of New Delhi's markets, soon after or even during their theatre run.
In Chennai and the rest of the State, such pirated discs are often made from camera recordings in theatres. Ayngaran, a London-base distributor of DVDs of the latest Tamil films says that the film rights sold to it by producers imposed a restriction period during which the video format should not be released in India. Indus Video, a Mumbai company that released Kamal's ``Mumbai Express" in Hindi on VCD and DVD is not hopeful of competing with the pirates on price.
``The legal discs cost Rs. 150 for a VCD and Rs. 300 for a DVD while a pirated one can be had for Rs. 40 and Rs. 70. The legal discs can in turn be rented out by video libraries and in fact form the primary market for the optical disc business," says Mr. Gul Hemdev, Indus Video director. ``Munnabhai MBBS" was a hit video release in recent times, touching one lakh discs.
Bollywood seems to be moving ahead: Indus says Hindi films are now invariably released on the video circuit officially soon after their theatre run.
``They were always ahead," says Kamal of the film folk at Mumbai. Will Kollywood and the rest of the industry also tap into the market and opt for a share of the growing cake of digital revenues? Or will they watch the pirates rule the seas?
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Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
