New Delhi: In a measure aimed at curbing film piracy, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry officials in the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) have been empowered to remove pirated versions of films reaching the internet by taking swift action.
A total of 12 nodal officers have been appointed across the country by amending the Central Cinematograph Act to receive the complaints and act on the ground. The nodal officer for Kerala is Ajay Joy, the CBFC Thiruvananthapuram Regional Officer.
Earlier film workers used to come to remove the links of pirated film versions on the internet on the basis of court orders.
A direction to remove such links within 48 hours will be given upon finding the complaint genuine during an inspection, sources said. If a new fake entity appears, then a fresh application will have to be given.
The new system has been brought in to prevent pirated versions of newly released movies from being made available on digital platforms. However, OTT films won’t come within its purview, officials said, adding the practice of cutting small portions of films and placing them on websites cannot be prevented as part of this.
It is estimated that fake prints cause a loss of Rs 20,000 crore to the film industry a year.
Those who propagate fake prints usually face action under the Copyright Act and the Indian Penal Code. Information and Broadcasting Ministry secretary Apoorva Chandra said that the amendment has been made in this context.
The amendment has brought in provisions like three months to three -year imprisonment, three lakh rupees of fine and another fine of 5% of the production cost of the film.
No need to go to Mumbai office to dub films into Hindi
Now the certification proceedings to dub regional language films into Hindi can be completed at the CBFC regional offices itself. So far, the certificate application for films in regional languages like Malayalam and Tamil needed to be submitted to the regional offices. To dub them into Hindi, the makers had to apply to the Mumbai office. Now all these proceedings can be completed at the regional offices.
The measure comes at a time when an investigation is on regarding the complaint that the CBFC Mumbai office demanded a bribe of Rs 6.5 lakh to provide certification to the Hindi version of ‘Mark Antony’, the film of Tamil actor and producer Vishal.
