MUMBAI: Home video major Shemaroo continues its fight against the biggest threat to its business - piracy. In two separate anti-piracy raids conducted at Mira Road and Bandra a few days ago, the vigilance team of Shemaroo Video seized pirated VCDs and DVDs worth over Rs 3.1 million.
The first raid at Vajreshwari Music Center in Mira Road yielded a haul of 2000 pirated VCDs / DVDs, DVD players, DVD Writers and a television. This also included 23 master copies of various films - these being the copies from which "replication" is possible. Replication is the act of making copies without loss of data and quality. Generally, pirated master copies already have a bad quality, resulting in poor copies that could damage players.
The second raid was conducted at the three stalls outside Bandra Railway station. Stalls outside railway stations in Mumbai are notorious for pirated Audio and Video CDs and this comes as an effort from Shemaroo to curb piracy at the point of sale.
Rs 2.2 million worth pirated goods were seized from these stalls, which included over 4000 DVDs. Senior PI Kadri, PSI Pednekar conducted the raid and were instrumental in making the raid possible because of their timely action. One Aftab Alam Ansari was arrested.
Shemaroo VP Hiren Gada said, "Piracy is taking up almost 90 per cent of the market in home video sales. It is very important that the Industry joins hands to curb this menace so that everyone in the movie business can reap true benefits of their efforts."
The Shemaroo anti-piracy team carries out various vigilance activities gathering information, surveillance and warning the pirates. The team also gives information about dealing in legitimate products and educates on the consequences of dealing in pirated video products. Only when they cease to heed to all the warnings that Shemaroo raids the outlet and takes action against the pirates.
Having an end-to-end objective in mind, Shemaroo says that it believes that fighting anti-piracy will gradually increase the legitimate home video market. Increased revenues can be shared with other people involved in the entertainment industry, which will also help the government get more taxes bringing a decrease in the black economy.
