Film piracy in Chennai causing concern

CHENNAI - Top actors from Tollywood, the hub of Tamil cinema on Tuesday joined hands against film piracy.

Rajinikanth called piracy an “internal job” and called upon the industry to clean its own act before asking the authorities for help.

“The main question behind this (piracy) is how does it begin? And the answer is that it is only through our people. And to call the Chief Minister and police officials for help is quiet disturbing. So, this question should be tackled first,” he said.

Kamal Hasan called for stringent laws to check the menace.

“What we actually need to do is to enact strong laws which are foolproof because we feel that existing laws have a lot of weaknesses like there is no provision to check how come pirated DVDs hit the markets before the release of a film,” he said.

An original CD costs around 200 to 250 rupees, while the pirated ones are available for half the cost, making piracy a very lucrative business especially since the duplicating costs are very low.

Police have raided shops stocking pirated CDs and DVDs. But these steps have achieved little.

Breach of copyright laws is punishable by prison for up to three years, but most pirates get away paying a nominal fine. (ANI)