Drama Artistes Forum expresses concern over piracy in Tulu films

MANGALURU: Members of Tulu Nataka Kalavidara Okkoota expressed concern over the leak of upcoming Tulu film 'Dabak Dabak Aisa', on Thursday. Slated for an August 5 release, copies of the film were leaked a week ago, forcing the producer to register a case with the Udupi police and Mangaluru city police.
Kishore D Shetty, president of the Okkoota, also a film producer, said the local language film industry suffers from a limited market and such incidents have a negative impact on the film's collection.Producers suffer a lot of loss. It is only a few films that have earned some profits, he pointed.
This development has seen producers shy away from investing in Tulu films, Kishore Shetty said, adding that it could be the death knell for the industry that is just 70 films young. Asserting that the leak could have taken place at the post-editing stage, he said that it is heartening that steps taken by the police heads of two policing units has resulted in a plug in leaks and people with copies of the film on their personal devices are deleting the same to avoid possible legal action.
Kishore Shetty also made a plea to all Tulu film lovers not to kill the fledgling industry by promoting the spread of the pirated copies or watching it in their homes. Lives of the artistes, and many others is at stake due to such mindless act that is punishable by law, he said. Piracy was a problem plaguing other major film industries across the world and its spread to a local language industry is a development that we all should fight together, he noted.