The makers of Dhoom 3, Yash Raj Films have decided to combat piracy in a rather futuristic way, and have taken a strong stance of going digital with a mere handful prints of the film, with the idea being to try and shift exhibitors to the digital wagon.
A lot of revenue is lost at the Box Office due to piracy, which is a known fact by now. The authorities may have got into a stronger anti-piracy campaign, or even demanded capital punishment for the crime, but the problem still persists. The pirated DVDs of all latest films are still available freely, even in Mumbai, which is the Bollywood capital. You can still see roadside hawkers at any local railway stations in Mumbai and various places freely selling pirated copies of almost every single movie, right under the nose of policemen patrolling the city. On the contrary, you can even very easily spot policemen themselves picking up pirated DVDs from such hawkers, as part of their bribe. It is a very common situation nowadays.
To combat this, earlier this year, Yash Raj Films had announced that there would be no physical reels of Dhoom 3, and hence exhibitors keen to show the film needed to make the technology shift. The main issue here is that most of India’s single screen cinemas are still not equipped with this latest technology.
Currently, India has around 1200 multiplex screens, and about 12,000 single screens. Dhoom 3 will release on the digital and UFO digital cinemas. This will help prevent piracy to a very large extent. Even if one manages to cheat, the prints are watermarked and fingerprinted. This makes it easy to trace, and the cheaters can be caught immediately. It would be difficult for piracy racketeers to prolong, and this may compel the audiences to visit the theatres to watch their favorite film.
Dhoom 3 stars Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif, Abhishek Bachchan and Uday Chopra in lead roles, and is directed by Vijay Krishna Acharya, and produced by Aditya Chopra under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film releases on December 20, 2013.
Will this strong step by Dhoom 3 motivate others to use technology to curb piracy like Hollywood? That is still a question, and only time will answer.
For all latest news on Dhoom 3, stay tuned with us!
