John Doe orders bring relief for film producers

Piracy is catastrophic to the commercial exploitation of cinematograph films. A film’s life is largely dependent on the revenues generated through its theatrical exploitation, especially in the first week of release.

A producer spends tens of millions of rupees in making and marketing a film. In India around 4 billion tickets are sold annually at an average price of US$0.50 per ticket. From the value of around US$1.7 billion generated by the film industry annually, US$1.2 billion (70%) is lost to piracy.

Technologies used

Piracy takes place in various ways. Films are usually camcorded in the theatre and then made available on CDs, DVDs or on cable TV through local cable operators, or uploaded on the internet for downloading by the general public.

Naik Naik & Co, founded by Ameet Naik, is a full-service law firm with specific focus on entertainment, real estate, retail and technology. It has three offices in Mumbai and one in Delhi. Ravi Suryawanshi is a senior associate at the firm and can be contacted at ravisuryawanshi@nnico.com.