Hollywood Ties to Anti-Piracy Push Across India

A robust local film industry has kept American films on the margins in India. Foreign films account for only 3% of the market in India, compared to European countries, where American movies account for between 70% and 95% of films shown. So if the United States wants to make a point about film piracy in India, it needs to show Indians that piracy hits the market for their own films, not just those of foreign companies.

Bollywood to Hollywood

The 'Bollywood-Hollywood' study, conducted by Ernst & Young in Mumbai for the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), a trade group based in Washington, DC, is the first of its kind to try to do just that. According to the new study, Indian films produced revenues of $2.1 billion in 2007, mostly from box-office receipts. But Indian filmmakers are losing out on nearly $1 billion a year due to the piracy that dominates the DVD market.

Chander Lall, a partner with New Delhi-based law firm Lall & Sethi, heads the Indian anti-piracy operation of the Motion Picture Association International, the global arm of the Motion Picture Association of America, which has long worked to enforce
its members' copyrights in India. 'American movies are relatively safe in India because of well-coordinated, well-funded nationwide enforcement efforts,' Lall claims. By contrast, 'Indian films have nothing of the sort,' he says.

The Indian film industry is often called 'Bollywood,' though technically this refers only to the Hindi-language cinema produced in Mumbai. Films are also made in other languages, such as Telugu and Tamil. The film and music industries in India are inextricably linked: The majority of Indian films are musicals, and almost all Indian music sold on CD comes from the movies. According to the USIBC report, 64% of the music market is pirated, with a total loss to the industry estimated at $325 million.

Indian films have traditionally been funded by wealthy individuals ' and organized crime. But in the past five years, the industry has matured, says Lall, with major studios emerging ' such as Yash Raj Films and Ushakiron Movies.

American Movie Makers Moving In

U.S. filmmakers are interested in the Indian audience. So U.S. companies lately are investing in Bollywood-style Indian-language movies in India through joint ventures, such as Walt Disney Co.'s work with India's UTV Software Communications Ltd. In February, Disney upped its share in UTV, which produced the 2006 international hit 'The Namesake.' Sony released its first Bollywood co-production, 'Saawariya,' last summer, while Disney, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., and Viacom Inc. all have plans for their own Indian productions. As more U.S. companies join the fray, they want to make sure their investments are safe, says Uday Singh, managing director of Sony Pictures in Mumbai.

The U.S. film industry is heartened by efforts like those in Andhra Pradesh, a southern state where a 2005 anti-piracy law has helped stamp out piracy in the local Telugu-language film market. The only problem, according to the report, is that Andhra Pradesh's special anti-piracy task force only cracks down on pirated Telugu films, leaving Hindi-language movies open to pirates.

That's a common problem across the country, says Zaheer Khan, a former police officer who now runs Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights, an investigations firm in Mumbai: Police often act to protect only the copyrights of the company that instigated the raid. Lall says that while he has been successful protecting Hollywood movies, his raids often leave pirated Indian films on the shelves, despite what the law says.

So a broader national crackdown is needed. USIBC hopes to change attitudes to piracy within the Indian film industry and the Indian government by showing just how much they both are losing.

A robust local film industry has kept American films on the margins in India. Foreign films account for only 3% of the market in India, compared to European countries, where American movies account for between 70% and 95% of films shown. So if the United States wants to make a point about film piracy in India, it needs to show Indians that piracy hits the market for their own films, not just those of foreign companies.

Bollywood to Hollywood

The 'Bollywood-Hollywood' study, conducted by Ernst & Young in Mumbai for the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), a trade group based in Washington, DC, is the first of its kind to try to do just that. According to the new study, Indian films produced revenues of $2.1 billion in 2007, mostly from box-office receipts. But Indian filmmakers are losing out on nearly $1 billion a year due to the piracy that dominates the DVD market.

Chander Lall, a partner with New Delhi-based law firm Lall & Sethi, heads the Indian anti-piracy operation of the Motion Picture Association International, the global arm of the Motion Picture Association of America, which has long worked to enforce
its members' copyrights in India. 'American movies are relatively safe in India because of well-coordinated, well-funded nationwide enforcement efforts,' Lall claims. By contrast, 'Indian films have nothing of the sort,' he says.

The Indian film industry is often called 'Bollywood,' though technically this refers only to the Hindi-language cinema produced in Mumbai. Films are also made in other languages, such as Telugu and Tamil. The film and music industries in India are inextricably linked: The majority of Indian films are musicals, and almost all Indian music sold on CD comes from the movies. According to the USIBC report, 64% of the music market is pirated, with a total loss to the industry estimated at $325 million.

Indian films have traditionally been funded by wealthy individuals ' and organized crime. But in the past five years, the industry has matured, says Lall, with major studios emerging ' such as Yash Raj Films and Ushakiron Movies.

American Movie Makers Moving In

U.S. filmmakers are interested in the Indian audience. So U.S. companies lately are investing in Bollywood-style Indian-language movies in India through joint ventures, such as Walt Disney Co.'s work with India's UTV Software Communications Ltd. In February, Disney upped its share in UTV, which produced the 2006 international hit 'The Namesake.' Sony released its first Bollywood co-production, 'Saawariya,' last summer, while Disney, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp., Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc., and Viacom Inc. all have plans for their own Indian productions. As more U.S. companies join the fray, they want to make sure their investments are safe, says Uday Singh, managing director of Sony Pictures in Mumbai.

The U.S. film industry is heartened by efforts like those in Andhra Pradesh, a southern state where a 2005 anti-piracy law has helped stamp out piracy in the local Telugu-language film market. The only problem, according to the report, is that Andhra Pradesh's special anti-piracy task force only cracks down on pirated Telugu films, leaving Hindi-language movies open to pirates.

That's a common problem across the country, says Zaheer Khan, a former police officer who now runs Enforcers of Intellectual Property Rights, an investigations firm in Mumbai: Police often act to protect only the copyrights of the company that instigated the raid. Lall says that while he has been successful protecting Hollywood movies, his raids often leave pirated Indian films on the shelves, despite what the law says.

So a broader national crackdown is needed. USIBC hopes to change attitudes to piracy within the Indian film industry and the Indian government by showing just how much they both are losing.