15 February 2009, Hyderabad

Shyam Prasad Reddy held press meet today to explain the implications of the rampant piracy in Telugu film industry

50 crores worth films for Rs 15/- DVD
Shyam Prasad said, “We got information at 11 pm on Friday night that piracy is going on in Dilshuk Nagar. We went there and waited throughout the night. During the morning, a guy called Sobhan had his car stocked with boxes of DVDs. He is the guy who pirates and distributes it to various video shops. He was selling a DVD containing three films (Arundhari, Maska and King) for Rs. 15/- to the retailer. These three films together cost around 50 crores and he is pirating it and selling it for Rs. 15/-. The police arrested him and they interrogated him throughout the night. He gave information about 62 outlets throughout AP using which he distributes the pirated DVDs. If piracy is eating the money of the producer, we will end up making movies in limited budget and give films that complete with the soap operas.

One crore people are shying away from theaters because of piracy
There are around 50,000 video shops in AP and even if they stock around 10 pirated copies of the film, there will be 5,00,000 DVDs in circulation for a movie. Even if one DVD is watched by 5 family consisting 4 members each, a film is being watched by at least one crore people though pirated DVDs. The film industry is losing one crore tickets for a good film. Piracy is a parallel industry run by anti-social elements.

Internet piracy is another threat
Another big threat is internet piracy. Lots of educated youngsters are uploading movies on internet for fun and sharing the links with their friends. And these links spread like wildfire and end up everybody downloading latest movies for free. The people who upload movies on internet should understand the agony of the producers. They do it for thrill. But the film industry is suffering. Cyber crime department is on the prowl of the pirates on internet.

Movie lovers should watch the original film
A bike is being sold in Mohanza market for 5000 rupees. But people think twice to buy it because it’s a stolen bike. They fear that police might catch them at a later point of time. Watching a pirated DVD is also a crime. But people don’t shy away because cops will not arrest them. There is a law in Tamil Nadu where the one who watches a pirated video will be arrested and a non-bailable warrant will be issued against them. I request all the movie lovers to watch films in either theaters or on the original DVDs.