Movie leaks get worse

As smartphone penetration grows, India is increasingly seeing films across languages being subjected to piracy, some before official release

Last week, makers of Dagdi Chawl, a Marathi movie on the life of city-based gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli, got a shock when almost the entire film was available online, right after its release. The leak prompted the producers to approach the police.

In Kerala and Tamil Nadu, high-profile movies such as Premam (in Kerala) and Papanasam (in Tamil Nadu, starring Kamal Haasan) were targeted by pirates right after release.

And, some films made it to the internet even before their release. Sunny-Deol-starrer Mohalla Assi is available there, even as the film awaits a nod from the censor board. Ketan Mehta's Manjhi-The Mountain Man, starring Nawazuddin Siddique, saw occupancy rates drop dramatically in cinemas and multiplexes, thanks to the leaked version available on torrent websites 10 days before release in August (torrent is short for BitTorrent, a technology used to distribute files, often copyright ones, over the internet without paying for these).

Actress Sridevi's much-hyped Tamil comeback film Puli had to contend with leaked teasers and movie stills before its release in July. Producers of Bhajrangi Bhaijaan, starring Salman Khan, had to endure similar embarrassment, when the official trailer made it to the internet before the green signal given by them. Unconfirmed reports also said it was available on torrent websites the day of its release.

While piracy has plagued the movie business in India for long, what is changing are the tactics being used to steal content. Leaking movie content online, many before release, is the latest. 2015 saw both big and small-budget films across languages fall prey to this.

Uday Singh, managing director, Motion Picture Distributors Association (India), says the revenue loss to a film as a result of leaking is 25-30 per cent. "It can be more if the content is widely available online and has been leaked much before the release date," he says.

In Manjhi's case, for instance, cumulative box office collections on the first and second day after release (on August 21) was barely Rs 4 crore, said analysts. This was way below producers' expectations.

Farokh Balsara, partner and a media & entertainment industry leader at Ernst & Young, says online leaks are a result of the movie value chain being compromised. "Typically, leaks happen because someone in the pre-production, distribution or exhibition stage has been paid to make copies of the film. These are then leaked to torrent websites and platforms because there is an audience out there, hungry for this content," he says.

According to sector estimates, movie piracy as a business is pegged at over $1 billion (Rs 6,500 crore) in size in India. And, much of this is now moving online, thanks to the growing penetration of smartphones.

"Apart from music downloads, movie downloads are increasingly becoming common, thanks to 3G (third-generation telecom technology)," says Jehil Thakkar, partner and head of media and entertainment practice, KPMG India. "With 4G now available in the market, downloading movies has only become easier."

As enforcement of the law remains weak, it is easy for crime syndicates to bribe people in the movie value chain to produce copies of films.

Singh says the way out is to improve safety measures. "We have been asking the censor board to move to a Digital Cinema Initiatives (DCI)-encrypted compliance system for its archives, rather than storing content on DVDs, which can be leaked. I say this because censor board copies have been making it online, which can be plugged with DCI encryption, which is password-protected," he says.

Similarly, networks used to store and transmit movies from the editing desk also need to be protected from hackers, preventing the latter from breaching firewalls, Singh says. Movie studios, he adds, have begun watermarking and fingerprinting films to ensure that if copies are made at the distribution and exhibition stage, the studio can gauge from which multiplex or theatre it has been done.

The problem remains acute. "I was recently travelling from Virar to Churchgate (within Mumbai) via train," says veteran producer-distributor Shyam Shroff of Mumbai-based Shringar Films, "I was surprised to note that almost all my fellow travellers in the first-class compartment were watching films on their mobiles and tablets. I am sure half of it was downloaded from these torrent websites."

With digital piracy on the rise, law makers and film producers, say experts, will have to address this new reality.

SAFETY NET

• Movies need to be protected from hackers, preventing the latter from breaching firewalls, says Motion Picture Distributors Association MD Uday Singh
  

 

These are hacked when networks store and transmit movies from the editing desk
 

Movie studios have begun watermarking and fingerprinting films to ensure that if copies are made at distribution and exhibition stage, the studio can gauge from which multiplex or cinema it has been done