Bollywood wants US action on counterfeiters
Updated
Indian film makers have urged the US Congress to take action against movie piraters, saying illegal copies of Indian movies sold in small US stores are costing the industry billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
Veteran filmmaker Bobby Bedi told a gathering on Capitol Hill that counterfeit films are undermining the industry at home.
"We are losing 90 percent of our home video market in the United States," he said.
He says American law enforcement agencies aren't taking equivalent action to their efforts to stop piracy of US-made films.
"We feel that we should get the same treatment as American producers should get as far as intellectual property is concerned," he said at the event, held to mark World Intellectual Property Day, which falls this Saturday.
Research carried out for the US Indian Business Council says piracy costs the Indian entertainment industry 800,000 jobs and billions of dollars every year.
While part of the problem lies in online piracy, Mr Bedi says Bollywood is also losing out through the illegal sales of counterfeit DVDs and videos.
He says the Indian home video market in the US accounts for around 15 percent of the overall value of India's entertainment industry.
"We are losing maybe half of that - one billion dollars per year - through piracy and related activities in the United States," he said.
