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Watching pirated CDs seems to be a thing of the past. The latest trend is to download new releases from the appropriate web sites. Not much time is lost before a new movie finds its way into these web sites. Although efforts were made in the past by producers, directors and even film stars to curb the piracy business, these effort  were extended as far as one’s own films were concerned and has had not much effect on the world of piracy which is growing fast and steadily. Producer Gunnam Gangaraju’s movie ANUKOKUNDA OKA ROJU was put up for downloading barely a few weeks after its release. Even though action was taken against the concerned website, the movie again appeared on the site for downloading. In an interview with Ragalahari, producer Gunnam Gangaraju spoke about the action taken against the website and about the ever expanding business of piracy.

“We were informed that our movie was put up for downloading, on a couple of sites. This was just two weeks after the movie was released. We approached the Cyber crime cell. Luckily for us some of these sites we using pirated software so with the help of the FBI we got these sites suspended. Even a notice was put up declaring them as suspended sites and that they were liable for criminal prosecution. We even had the server for these sites traced over a period of two weeks. Some of them were actually from Hyderabad. But when we informed at the local police station, the officer over there asked us for a bribe and no action was taken for two weeks. Then we went to the task force. They were very helpful and immediate action was taken. The same night the guys were caught. Both of them were students, one in 12^th and the other doing engineering 2^nd year.

            This incident cannot be exactly termed as a part of the pirated CDs business, because a pirated CD is required to upload the film on to the website. To curb the uploading of such pirated software the Producer’s Council needs to have a 24 hour surveillance body. Such sites will keep popping up like mushrooms any and every time. So if once such a surveillance body is established it can clamp the activities of these sites. A single mail to these sites will act like bait and they can be trapped. It doesn’t need a genius to solve this problem as the people involved are no genius either. You don’t need special IT people to do this work. All the people involved in these sites are just extra smart with their knowledge of computers, than the normal layman. They do not create any of these soft wares. They just buy the software, that to not the legal one’s, and upload it.

   As far as the criticism about each producer seeing to his own. I would like to tell that a producer’s job is not only about shelling out the money. I am talking about people who take production seriously, not the people who are just investing the money and not bothered about the remaining aspects. It is a hell of a job. The producer faces with a lot of decisions and mental tensions during the release time of the film. People outside can’t even begin to understand how tough it is to be a producer and to expect the producer to fight crime at a time when he has the tension of trying to make a success of his film, is a little too much to ask of him.

                  And if you are talking about a council, then sorry. I basically think that anything involving more than half a dozen people will not function well. It won’t be well organized. And if it has a thousand producers, it won’t work. The only fool proof method to eradicate piracy, I see is as simple as not releasing the movie itself. As long as movies are released people will find ways to market them illegally. But there are actually a couple of ways where in we can avoid people from taping the film from the big screen. There are laser systems which will blank out every thing when the movie is captured on the video. The other method is the use of digital projection. This might come into use, because some Tamil films like, APARICHITUDU and CHANDRAMUKHI, have already used it. I think the quality is also pretty good. It would be nice if people in the Telugu industry would also start using this method.”

 (When asked about rumors that suggest that industry folks itself are not far from watching pirated CDs, a visibly irritated Gunnam Gangaraju had this to say)

“I do not know who told the audiences that we watch pirated CDs but I would like to ask them how they got such information. Did they peep into a producer’s house to see if they are watching pirated movies? I hardly visit other producer’s house to know whether they actually do such stuff nor am I interested in doing so. All this is just an excuse, the guilty people use to divert the attention for themselves. Just because another person is also doing the wrong thing doesn’t make the deed right. It won’t bring the guilt down. I want to make that point clear. You can’t use the producer as an excuse for making pirated CDs. Because the producer has no need to watch pirated stuff when he can the original, free of cost in the theater at anytime that he chooses. If a producer is watching movies of other languages, the original mind you, it is for business reasons only. That is when he wants to buy the movie rights in order to make a remake of it, or to check out the latest trends and to gauge an actor’s performance. The piracy is meant for lacks of people.  They are not pirating these movies for a few hundred in the industry.

       This kind of piracy exists even in the music industry. And in fact, as many people know, has been there for a longer time. Some fake websites are offering MP3 downloads. Latest movie songs are up for down loading and it is absolutely rubbish if they say that it is a smaller market. Corers of rupees are invested and generated by the music industry. What have they done to stop piracy in their industry?  It is a very shady business. Who knows? They themselves could have pirated their own music to avoid taxes. Didn’t Gulshan Kumar start the same way? He began his business by pirating music and later became a music baron. All this is very shady. If we have a mind to do it all this can be avoided.”