Why lethargic attitude to video piracy: Vishal, other producers

Chennai: Five Tamil film producers, actor Vishal, Gnanavel Raja, Rajashekar, Elred Kumar and Suresh, affected recently by video piracy, are peeved at Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC)'s "lethargic attitude" to the issue.

At a hurriedly-convened press conference, Vishal said "In recent times, five movies including Arya's VSOP, Inji Iduppazhagi and its Telugu version Size Zero, 24 have been pirated from PVR Cinemas from Orion Mall, Bengaluru. There's a method by which we can find out from which theatre, pirated copies had been made. Since we had the evidence, we raised the issue with TFPC. We decided not to support and screen movies in PVR, Chennai as well as in Bengaluru. This happened a week back and the council has not taken any action".

The actor's upcoming flick Maruthu is to hit theatres this Friday and he fears that pirates would be busy printing DVD covers and stickers for the film. Gnanavel said, "Piracy has been on at an alarming rate in the last year and a half. Through piracy, they are earning between Rs 800 crore and Rs 1,000 crore every year. Pirates eat 80 per cent of our income. Sad the situation has compelled many producers to leave the business".

Elred Kumar who produced Ko2 said his film was leaked out from Cube itself when it was given for trimming.

Producers council knows who is doing piracy and why. They know how to kill it. They should do it. Thanu has promised to hold a meeting on Thursday. "Hope he bails us all out", Vishal said. The last resort for those who are active in producing movies is to plead the government. "We have no other option but to fast unto death," they said.