Piracy kingpins stay ahead of cops

At least a week before Ketan Mehta's 'Manjhi — The Mountain Man' hit theatres, 50 websites and Torrent sharing sites had uploaded links to the complete film. On Thursday, producers of the film brought the piracy issue to the notice of Mumbai Police, who started tracking the IP address from where the movie was first uploaded illegally. Kerala, too, is actively working to curb piracy and has anti-video piracy cells. But Kolkata is sadly lagging far behind.

Recently, five persons were arrested from Mini Jaya Cinema for pirating Samir Chanda's 'Ekti Nodir Golpo', but the kingpins of piracy in Kolkata remain untraced and untouched.

Pirated copies of 'Jamai 420' were available soon after the film's release on May 26. "We believe it got pirated from Regal cinema. The water-marking technique of the digital projection system — UFO — ascertained that. We lodged an FIR at New Market police station on June 2. The matter was transferred to the deputy commissioner of enforcement branch. We gave a letter on this to EB on July 23. The case is pending," said Rahul Mohta, president of Venkatesh Film's digital cinema.

Regal's owner Rajendra Bagaria refuted Mohta's charges, saying: "The accusations are made on the basis of a letter from UFO. But we don't accept that."

Mohta claimed that earlier 'Roga Howa Shohoj Upae' and 'Besh Korechhi Prem Korechi' were pirated from Mini Jaya. "The hall owner became alert once we tracked it via water marking. The five arrested for pirating Ekti Nodir Golpo' entered the hall together but two sat in front, one in the centre and two in the back row," Mohta said.

"That strange seating arrangement caught my attention and I informed police," said Mini Jaya's owner Manik Banik. A search revealed high definition cameras and laptops. "We nabbed the gang leader from Shyampukur, based on their arrests," said Bidhannagar Police commissioner Jawed Shamim. Officers who carried out the arrest said the accused were able to create copies for sale in less than four hours.

Police say curbing hall piracy is possible only if Tollywood provides clues. "In this case, we have slapped charges under the Copyright Act and added che-ating sections under IPC. But we lack expertise in dealing with such issues," a Lake Town police source said.

Producer Shrikant Mohta said, "It's surprising that piracy is affecting all of us except the Dhanukas."

To this, producer Ashok Dhanuka said, "Earlier we could check hall piracy, but now online piracy has become popular and we too are affected. 'Ami Shudhu Cheyechhi Tomae' and 'Khiladi' had been illegally uploaded before their official release."

Dhanuka claimed that he had helped with approximately 200 raids across Bengal with the help of Kolkata Police and West Bengal Police till online piracy happened. "We released most of the Venkatesh Films' productions between 1995 and 2009. Pirates then knew we will get police to nab them if they tried any mischief. Other producers had not taken that initiative," he said.

Mohta added, "We are ready to give the leads but police have to follow up on the complaints. Since piracy has become an accepted crime, no one takes this issue seriously."

The EB said film piracy raids are carried out at least four times a month in Kolkata. "But we often catch the foot players, who sell DVDs, and not the masterminds, who keep shifting bases. They are so organized in certain markets (Vijay Market, for example) that our men are forced to return empty-handed after raids," said a police officer.