M. Shyam Prasad Reddy, producer of ‘Arundhathi’ recently organized a press meet and expressed his concern over the raging issue on piracy. Mallemala Entertainers is one of the biggest production houses which make high budget extravaganzas with ‘Arundhathi’ being the latest that is a big time grosser.

Shyam Prasad shared his views and ways to eradicate piracy during the meet to the media persons.

‘We made big budget films like ‘Arundhathi, ‘Maska’ and ‘King’ on a collective budget of Rs. 50 crores. But, DVDs are already out in the illegal market with three-in-one combo of these movies for a price of just Rs. 15. If by this way illicit people thrive on our hard earned money then it will jeopardize our survival leading to an end.”

Flashing the pirated DVDs to the gathering, he continued, “On Friday Night (14th Feb), after a planned encounter, we managed to nab a person named Pandaga Seenu at Dilsukhnagar, who was buying the DVDs to distribute them in the market. After reporting to the Police, they questioned him and we came to know it’s a large network of over 62 centers located at Wargal, Nalgonda, KareemNagar, Secunderabad and Hyderabad. All our toil lasting for more than a year to bring out quality is becoming futile within a month’s time because of these modern pirates.”

‘In our state, there are more than 50 thousand video libraries which trades illegal content. Even if one pirated version per shop is distributed, on an average, about ten families will drop the idea to watch the film in the theater. The economical loss due will be around 750 crores for a year and if this trend continues…it will curb cinema in the near future. Thousands of people who rely on the industry as a career will be left jobless marking their future under a big question’.

The producer also made an appeal to the government and people to be aware of this leeching issue in our state which will lead to devastating results if not overlooked. He requested the patrons to watch the film in theaters and not encourage the dreaded piracy.