Digital age movie piracy on the rise

Piracy a pain for the producers and pleasure for millions.

Movies explore the edges of human emotion, freeze culture and are the cornerstone of creativity. Piracy is strictly thieving this creativity. The lure to download movies illegally is alluring because of the developing internet technology in India .Though efforts are being put forth by the officials an attitude change is the only way to curb pirated CDs and illegal movie downloads from Internet.

 The increasing ease of downloading movies, through broadband and compression technologies, along with high movie ticket prices, and wide film availability online are core factors driving consumers to download. Reports place India as the fourth largest global hub of online film piracy, behind United States, Britain and Canada. It estimates that Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey, was downloaded 350,000 times within few days of its release.

January 4, 2010 was a way post in the history of Tamil movies. Jaggubai the 15 core mega project of Sarathkumar was made available on the net even before its release.

"Movie piracy is not just a secret crime of some unscrupulous elements. It is a white collar crime and has its roots within the industry” says Mr. Rajinikanth, a lead actor of south Indian film industry. 

Chennai being the major port, the wholesale market flourishes here. Tamil Film Producers' president Ramanarayanan admits that parts of piracy trade have their roots in Chennai.

Reports claim that as much as Rs.50 cores and as many as 100,000 jobs are lost as a result of piracy every year. However the industry is learning to fight back against piracy. While the problem cannot be completely eradicated, they are taking steps to make sure that the industry doesn’t die out. 

Tamil Nadu was the first state to include video piracy in the Goondas Act as early as in 2004. The Government also took pro-active steps in sanctioning 49,225 posts of additional police. And has a separate Video Piracy Cell functioning under the Additional Director General of police Mr. Munzni.

The only word which is killing the whole industry in terms of revenue, employment and creativity is "piracy". The unscrupulous act of piracy definitely demands condemnation of the highest. 

“A uniform law across the country is essential to stop the illegal business,” said Chennai Theatre Owners’ Association president Abirami Ramanathan.

Sexual harassment at work is complex and highly subjective.

Unwelcome sexual behavior, hazards the life of young women in the film world.

Film industry has now become a minefield for sexual harassment of young women. The foremen having control over his workers demands sexual favor in returning for granting them official favors or else they are either not given the job or removed from the job. These make village belles and women from hapless families to accept this unwelcome sexually determined behavior.

At Koyambedu, Chennai’s main terminal, starry-eyed young girls arrive daily from distant small towns with hopes of becoming movie stars. They come from all over Tamil Nadu and from other neighbouring states. Their destination is 6 km away at Kodambakam, the hub of Tamil cinema. The untold, inside story of Kodambakkam is the plight of hundreds of women who failed to get their big break and fall into their male colleagues’ ‘sex-trap’ in order to get regular work.

“Having to work mostly with male counterparts, we are forced to put up with the groping hands of make-up men and costumers. Freshers need to please them first if they want to get regular work.” says Vani, a junior artiste.

Researches prove that Women with casual jobs are up to 10 times more likely experience unwanted sexual advances. Sexual Harassment affects all women in the industry in some form or the other. These grievous committed by acquaintances or men in positions of institutional power leads to the increase in the rate of suicides and loss of jobs by young women.

Sexual Harassment of women at work place within the industry is an extension of violence in everyday life and is discriminatory, thriving in atmosphere of threat. 

Actress Revathi says "The industry has to strongly address the issue of alleged sexual harassment of junior artistes. There should be a counseling cell for women to register their complaints”

The survey of the Gender Study Group shows that most women felt disgusted, insulted and scared by any sort of harassment hence such sensitive issues has to be systematically tackled.