It’s really shocking, but the fact is, film piracy is a $1-billion market in India. Due to increase of smart phone users, piracy market has shifted online. There are 146 piracy websites in total and Rs 205 cr is the value of the top pirated site. Indian cinema is losing up to 30 per cent of their business to piracy.
Representatives of Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC) recently made a presentation to Telangana IT minister K T Rama Rao, explaining Tollywood suffered Rs 361 crore losses because of piracy. Then the government set up country’s first anti-piracy unit – the Telangana Intellectual Property Crime Unit (TIPCU).
In fact, Baahubali inspired the government in setting up TIPCU. The SS Rajamouli directorial was uploaded online on the same day its release. TFCC tracked the key player of a film piracy racket at Jabalpur and arrested 10 others from his gang. It was later revealed that, the kingpin was an employee of a leading IT company. He used the company’s servers to store the films.
TIPCU’s main task will be to monitor online piracy and recommend blocking of websites. It will also prosecute the pirates and choke their revenue sources. The taskforce is expected to start work in the next few months. It will have representatives from cyber crime police, state IT ministry, internet service providers, the Telugu film industry, legal experts and financial experts.
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