Backed by support from the recently formed coalition between Hollywood and Bollywood studios, Mumbai Police along with AA khan & Associates continue to exert pressure on movie pirates. On 17th June 2010, a joint team conducted raids at multiple locations in south Mumbai seizing more than 9,500 pirated discs of recently released movies, estimated to be worth Rs. 9.5 lakhs.
The raids were conducted near Azad Maidan and McDonalds, VT in South Mumbai. The team seized pirated copies of Rajneeti, Prince of Persia, Shrek-3 and Kites. The distinguishing factor in this raid was that close to 80% of the DVDs seized were of Hollywood movies, signifying an increasing demand for such titles in the pirated market.
More than 650 DVDs of Rajneeti were seized in the current raids. The movie is already in the news for not only its box office collections but also for the screening of a pirated version of the movie for members from the political party BJP at a private screening held in Jaipur.
Five people have been arrested in the raids. They are likely to be booked under sections 51, 52(A), 63, 68(A) of Copyright Act along with sections 292A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Over the past few months the coalition along with agencies like AA Khan & Associates and United Copyright Protection Association (UPCA) have been conducting raids across major centres in Gujarat and Maharashtra in a bid to curb movie piracy.
Says AA Khan, “I am glad that our sustained efforts of conducting raids have begun to show results. Piracy is one of the major problems, since recent times its dangers are evident on a larger scale. Currently we are conducting raids at full-force and hope to find a solution to this problem.”
The coalition is trying to draw support for all stakeholders to raise awareness about the issue.