Kama Of Kingstone

Tightening the noose around the film and music piracy industry, the social service branch of the Mumbai police seized pirated CDs, DVDs and equipment worth Rs 1.6 crore from Parel on Saturday night. This is the biggest crackdown in recent times.

The seized material included CDs and DVDs of Hollywood and Bollywood films and equipment such as eight DVD writers, DVD sets, TV sets used to make the pirated copies. The raid yielded about 10,500 such pirated prints in addition to 2,500 blank CDs.

Computers and printers used for printing the inlay cards were also seized as part of the raid. Two persons, Swapnil Achrekar (32) Ruchik Gadyagli (32), involved in the business were arrested from Nirvanji chawl near KEM hospital at Parel.

“The seized copies were mostly of English movies, there were also some blue films,’’ said DCP Sanjay Mohite. He added that costly master prints, that were used to create duplicates, were also found at the time of the raid.

“These cost upto Rs 2,000 each and are copyright material,’’ he said.

TOI had recently highlighted the booming market for pirated prints with CDs of new releases like Om Shanti Om and Saawariya being available at throw-away rates within 24 hours of its release.

Saturday’s crackdown which yielded Rs 1.6 crore is the biggest this year considering the fact that in 10 months till October, 2 lakh CDs and DVDs worth Rs 2.5 crore were seized.

Last year, the Social Service Branch only seized pirated CDs and DVDs worth Rs 1.32 crore.

The Hindi film industry has an annual turnover of Rs 5,500 crore, of which 27% - about Rs 1,500 crore - is lost due to piracy.

( Courtesy: The Times of India )