Show stealers

Piracy reaches the next level as latest flicks are illicitly put online with brazen ads, press notes

Piracy reaches the next level as latest flicks are illicitly put online with brazen ads, press notes

After years of gnawing away at Bollywood's profits while hiding in its dark underbelly, the people behind the multicrore-film piracy racket have surfaced, albeit in the virtual world. And not only are they fearlessly promoting pirated films, they are advertising them too on a media portal.

In a press release (a copy of which is with MiD DAY) posted on the website prlog.org, frequented by many media professionals, the film pirates are openly inviting fans to watch new releases on online.



Stolen flicks

For example, a release from prlog.org advises film buffs to stay at home to avoid swine flu and watch the latest movies on moovyshoovy.com. One of the movies being illegally circulated by the website is Vishal Bhardwaj's Shahid Kapur-Priyanka Chopra-starrer Kaminey. While the website's out-of-focus print proves the film's pirated antecedents, Bhardwaj's office too denied having released the movie online.

"We haven't permitted any company to host the movie on a website," said an official from Bhardwaj's office.
MiD DAY tried to contact the producers of Love Aaj Kal, another hot favourite on the site, but could not get through.

Apart from moovyshoovy. com, latest Bollywood releases are available for online viewing at portals like gamingharbor.com, maskfilms.com and nowdownloadall.com. Most of these portals are regulated from the US, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and France.

Illicit shot: A webshot of Kaminey from the site moovyshoovy.com, which is illegally distributing the film online

Experts wary

Talking about the availability of pirated versions of their latest film Kaminey, Prakash Mathur, vice-president, Operation, UTV Motion Pictures, said, "While physical piracy can be controlled, its online counterpart is tough to be eliminated. Though there're several agencies that track portals which distribute films online, there isn't a foolproof system to keep a check. During the release of Delhi 6, we had sent legal notices to several websites but since these portals are mainly hosted abroad, we can't drag them to Indian courts. But in case of Kaminey, we are trying to track as many websites as possible."

Industry experts agree. "The film industry has been losing a lot of money due to physical piracy and now, online piracy has become a bigger menace. The stakeholders must take the problem seriously and track down the hosts of these websites. Otherwise, the industry will bleed more," said Bollywood analyst Taran Adarsh.

Films on offer
You can also watch pirated versions of Saif Ali Khan's maiden production Love Aaj Kal, RGV's Agyaat, Rumi Jaffery directed Govinda-Fardeen Khan-Tusshar Kapoor starrer Life Partner, Sanjay Dutt-Imran Khan-Shruti Haasan's Luck, Perfect Mismatch and a slew of Marathi, Kannad, Tamil, Punjabi, Bengali and Malayalam films.