Not any more Piracy of films. Information Ministry appointed 12 nodal officers. The accused will be punished

India's Information and Broadcasting Minister Shri Anurag Thakur has clearly spoken about running a campaign against film piracy. The film industry is suffering an annual loss of about Rs 2000 crore due to piracy. In the monsoon session of Parliament, the government introduced the Cinematograph (Amendment) Bill 2023, which was passed unanimously. Under this bill, a person involved in piracy will have to pay three years imprisonment or a fine of 5 percent of the production cost of the film or both can be imposed.

To stop piracy, a mechanism unit has been arranged by the Ministry of Information Broadcasting and Electronic Corps under which 12 nodal officers will work. These officers will be associated with the Ministry of Information Technology and CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification) will become active as soon as they receive the complaint and bring forward the allegations within the next 48 hours. Any complaint related to piracy can be reported to them and these officers will be responsible for it. Under this arrangement, whatever the form or platform of cinema, there will be equal action on them. Be it age-based certification, content theft, copyrights, or duplicating movies for free, action will be taken against any suspicion of piracy.

Information and Broadcasting Secretary Apoorva Chandra and Shri Nitin Chand Ahuja from the Producers Guild Association expressed their views and said that the need to take strict action against piracy has been felt for a long time. The new rules and arrangements will save the film industry from huge losses.