Govt says no to curb film piracy with policy

In what is viewed as a setback to the efforts of the film industry in curbing piracy, the government today said the recommendations of the draft optical disk policy on combating piracy would lead to the creation of a regime of inspectors that would go against the grain of the liberalisation policy. For the past few months, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting was examining the draft Optical Disc Law to check piracy in the film sector. The draft law was prepared by the members of film sector at the initiative of government of India, and they were expecting a positive response. However, addressing the Ficci-Frames 2008 convention in Mumbai, Asha Swarup, Secretary, Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, made it clear that the government was not in favour of implementing the recommendations.

Acknowledging, though, that the menace of piracy in the entertainment and media industry was huge, she added that the problem had to be tackled by closing the supply side gaps. "A possible way", she said, "is to release films in ‘C’ and ‘D’ class towns in digital formats". Swarup expressed satisfaction on Pakistani films were being released in India and Indian films like Taare Zameen Par were getting an entry into Pakistan. She hoped that with a new democratic government in place in Pakistan, the situation would further improve and more Indian films would be screened in that country. The secretary also emphasised the need for development of content for TV viewers, especially for children.

Meanwhile, the FICCI-PricewaterhouseCoopers 2008 report estimates the industry at Rs 51,300 crore in 2007 -- a growth of 17 per cent from Rs 43,800 crore in 2006. The Indian entertainment and media industry is projected to clock Rs 115,000 crore by 2011.

In his address, Yash Chopra, chairman, FICCI Entertainment Committee & Yash Raj Films noted that Indian cinema has transcended boundaries. However, he added: "Piracy, IP protection in the animation segment and censorship are hurdles that the Indian media and entertainment industry have to overcome."

Rajeev Chandrasekhar, MP and President, Ficci, pointed out that the industry today had reached a point of critical mass from the early goals of nine years ago. “I believe this industry is poised to achieve the scale and size required to be global in terms of its value and presence,” he said. The challenge for the industry over the next few years, he said, was to scale up and becoming globally relevant to the capital markets and investors; relevant to consumers of entertainment all over the world and to producers of entertainment all over the world.

Kunal Dasgupta, co-chairman, FICCI Entertainment Committee & CEO Sony Entertainment Television, said: "We are in talks with the Academy of Television Arts and Sceince in the US, which represents the popular Emmy Awards, and hopefully we will able to present an Indian version of the popular Emmy Awards by next year." Amit Khanna, chairman, Reliance Entertainment & FICCI Convergence Committee said that new digital techology will reshape the distribution and exhibition business. On-demand entertainment will become the standard industry norm.