India: Pirated movie screening in RTC bus stings Minister

Stung with the incident of airing a pirated movie in the Bengaluru-bound TSRTC bus and alerted by the IT Minister K T Rama Rao, the Road Transportation Corporation on Monday ordered inquiry into the incident. Exactly a day after the release of the film Krishna Arjuna Yudham, the film was allegedly screened in a TSRTC bus travelling from Hyderabad to Bengaluru.

The issue came to light when a passenger, Sunil Kopparapu, brought this to the notice of IT Minister K T Rama Rao through his twitter account. Sunil tweeted, “Piracy failure on bus travel. Garuda Volvo bus trip to Bengaluru from Hyderabad. How can you ask a common man avoid piracy when an institute fails? Movie released.”

Replying to Sunil’s tweet, the IT Minister said, “That’s extremely irresponsible on the part of the Telangana-RTC staff of this bus. Request MD of TSRTC to make sure to act and prevent recurrence.”
The RTC officials said that the Corporation had no clue about the incident and an inquiry has been ordered.

Speaking to The Hans India, TSRTC MD G V Ramana Rao said that orders have been given to identify the bus in which the film was screened. He said that the person who tweeted would be contacted and details would be sought from him about the bus number and others.

“Generally, the films are run by the contractor and their attendee and there is no role of the driver or the conductor of the bus. The contractor would be quizzed, and necessary action would be taken against the contractors,” said Ramana Rao.

If the contractor is found guilty, action would be taken against the contractor, he said. Generally, the Corporation awards contract and it is valid for two years. The television, films and other equipments belong to the contractor, he added.

According to sources, a similar incident occurred five years ago when a pirated film was shown in the APSRTC bus. One of the distributors, who was travelling in the bus, noticed and alerted the authorities. Later, it was found that one of the passengers had played the movie in the bus, said sources.