Tollyswood gets tougher

A 20-something engineering graduate from the city, a BSc Computer Science drop-out from Vijayawada and a Hyderabadi software company owner are behind an online piracy scam that cost the Telugu film industry nearly `200 crore! In a major breakthrough, the Anti Video Piracy Cell set up by the Andhra Pradesh Film Chamber of Commerce with the help of the Andhra Pradesh CID busted two syndicates, one in AP and the other in Chennai, that have been making crores of rupees on pirated CDs, DVDs and online piracy.
Talking about the Hyderabad-based syndicate, Uday Bhaskar Reddy, DSP of CID reveals, ���We have arrested two individuals, Kathula Chaitanya in Hyderabad and Praneeth Motamarri in Vijayawada. Both have been running a syndicate that specialises in online piracy with the help of one Gopi Mosali who owns a web technology company, Leelam Technologies, Raj Bhavan Road. He has been providing the maintenance, hosting and designing services for these ���pirate��� websites.���
According to Raj Kumar, Chairman, anti-video piracy cell, Praneeth has so far uploaded 1,450 pirated movies through his websites. ���When the CID raided Praneeth���s house, he was caught uploading 28 pirated films in various languages. He is the kingpin and has been operating seven bank accounts in his name, and his relatives and friends��� names.
���Praneeth has six fake IDs to monetise illegal content, upload films onto torrent sites and float websites run by him. He has received hundreds of dollars through these activities and we are awaiting the actual figures from his bank statements,��� says Raj Kumar, adding that it���s surprising that Praneeth���s parents, who are bank employees, are unaware of their son���s activities.
Revealing more details, APFCC president Suresh Babu, says that while Kattula Krishna, a B.Tech graduate living in Kukatpally, was Praneeth���s accomplice, it was Gopi Mosali, owner of Leelam Technologies, who was providing the technological support. ���Gopi was found to be having six bank accounts, four PayPal IDs and a number of foreign remittances in his accounts,��� adds Suresh Babu. ���Earlier, even though we had caught people committing offences, we could not do much because it���s a bailable offence and we had very little evidence in hand. Now, that we have signed an MoU with Hollywood to set up Motion Pictures District Association (India), we have been able to trace the offenders and we have full evidence with us.���
Meanwhile, in another operation, Rajendra Puvvadi, who runs a syndicate specialising in camcording and burning pirated copies of CDs and DVDs, was arrested in Chennai. Investigations revealed that Rajendra was involved in shipping at least 5.45 lakh pirated DVDs worth `4,09,28,015 (USD $716,000). According to Raj Kumar, Rajendra was operating from Chennai and he was a regular at two printing presses for the design and production of labels for the pirated CDs and DVDs. The labels would be kept ready a week in advance and as soon as the film released, Rajendra���s accomplices across various states would bribe the ushers and gain entry into theatres with a camcorder. Soon after, the film would be replicated onto nearly 90,000 CDs and DVDs and released into the market. The investigation team found all his email IDs, bank accounts and his customers in different cities.
Estimated loss On one of the websites, the pirated movies gallery generated 12.6 million downloads/online views in two years. This caused Tollywood an estimated loss of nearly Rs 128 million. The combined loss caused by all the websites of the arrested parties is estimated to be around Rs 2 crore.
Total number of movies uploaded in the two major websites that were busted
Telugu : 354, Tamil : 181, Malayalam : 13, English : 622, Hindi : 280, Total : 1450
Most-pirated movies
Tollywood films: Adhinayakudu, Daruvu, Dammu, Racha, Gabbar Singh, Endukante Premanta, Premalo Padithe, Ishq
Hollywood films: Piranha, Madagascar-3, Journey-2, Men in Black 3, Prometheus, Rock of Ages, The Avengers, Puss in Boots