    
Vajrayudham
Kurra Bewarse
Username: Vajrayudham
Post Number: 526
Registered: 07-2004
Posted From: 155.70.39.45
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 - 6:25 pm: |    |
DC vadi article ...cinema vollu ante ne ..idiki padadi emo 
Teja did it. So did Nagarjuna. Then followed Venkatesh and now it’s Mahesh Babu. Different people, all from the same industry, fighting against the same cause — piracy. Piracy is not new, be it in Hollywood, Bollywood or any other regional film industry. Though it poses a big problem for the Telugu industry, nothing much has been done in the past, except for some sporadic attempts which hardly brought about any results.
The reason? There is no united effort on the part of the entire industry. Ironically, while it’s a common problem, actors, especially the bigger ones come forth only when their films are at stake. Rather than fighting on a common platform, they instead choose to fight for their film. Like Nagarjuna joined the anti-piracy drive, at least publicly, for Sivamani, Venkatesh did the same for his recently released film Gharshana.
Mahesh who usually stays away from filmi issues, took to the streets and in a very dramatic way even ended up raiding DVD parlours to curb the piracy of his recently released film Arjun. In the case of his earlier film, Nijam, it was his director Teja who took up the issue. The fact that Arjun happens to be his home production, was reason enough for him to be affected by the anti-piracy drive.
As far as the revenues of the industry are concerned, piracy results in a net loss of about Rs 200 crore a year! And the industry insiders feel the issue can be better tackled if the entire industry came together. The state government on its part, has just appointed a two-member committee to look into the matter, after a delegation of stars met Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy following the Mahesh Babu episode.
Though it’s a little late in the day, the industry has finally realised the need to be united and take up the drive seriously. Says Tammareddy Bharadwaja, president of A P Film Directors’ Association, “Whoever fights individually cannot achieve anything. Even if they are stars, they need to look at it as a larger issue concerning the whole industry. Only collective efforts will bear fruit now.”
Bharadwaja along with some of the industry bigwigs left for Delhi to meet Information Minister S Jaipal Reddy. “We will discuss all possible solutions and also the need to change certain laws. We are likely to adopt the same policy which was adopted in Kerala,” said Bharadwaja before leaving to Delhi.
Another outcome of the issue is that though there is a lot of brouhaha over big films starring big stars, nobody seems to be bothered about the small and medium budget films, which often make more money than big films. “The damage to the small movies is more than that of the big films. Big stars draw the audiences to the theatres with their image, which a smaller cast cannot.
Also, for small films, lesser number of copies are released. By the time small films reach the remote centres, pirated CDs will be out in the market and the distributors suffer tremendous losses,” says B A Raju, who himself produced a medium budget movie Chantigaadu, recently.
Director of Mahesh Babu-starrer Arjun, Gunasekhar too feels that it is the time to take up the fight collectively. “The film industry is losing crores of rupees because of piracy. CDs are so easy to copy, carry and trade in. Before the business booms, it’s important to curb it,” says he.
And in case you wondered what stopped the industry bigwigs to come together, then the answer is ‘ego problem’. “There are many actors who have big egos and do not gel with each other. IAt the end of the day, they are just human beings. Fight against piracy will be successful only if all them fight together. Piracy is like cancer, which needs to be treated before it turns mortal. Lastly, what is needed is an honest intention to fight,” says veteran comedian Rajendra Prasad. Considering the loss and the enormity of the problem, it’s time the Telugu industry came together in it’s fight against piracy.
 Ban ...Bendulakar & Baunguly |
