FIRST OF ALL:
I express my deep apology to all filmmakers whose movies which were pirated. But, we had no choice next time let’s give us a choice. And I bet 70% will choose filmmaker’s way.
This article and view are my expression on how we could look forward For new medium of selling our movie. View might differ.
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Yesterday I was watching Dashdhunga(one of the well-made Nepali movie). And I got message from Apil Bista (producer of movie). "bro pirated movie herna .. Ha ha ha". I am sure it's heart breaking for Apil bro( sry man). Then just few minute after I got message from a friend on face book "bro link send garna plus acharya ko pani". And a phone calls "kaha bata hereko". And a text. If Apil Bista had heard all these he would have been devastated. He and his entire team have put on Lot of effort on movie and people are watching it for free and that also from sources that has no link to them. As a filmmaker , it's painful. But, Let's see the other side of coin.
Movies are products and audiences are consumer. If there is hype of product people will try to buy it try to get access to it. Let's just remember about all those duplicate iPhone on maha Buda , there is hype and people want to consume it in one or the other way. That’s what has happen.
Dashdhunga as I said is one of the well-made movie(in my point of view) , one of the best made movies in Nepal . And being Nepali you want to watch your country's culture and art progressing. But for that you must be made accessible to it. Few shows here and there might help but it will do nothing on large scale. I know attempts has been made to make Nepali movies more accessible to audience (I am referring to people outside Nepal). As transition is being made from traditional Nepali Movies to modern Nepali movies interest is at its peak. So it has to be cashed in.
What can be done then?
- More regular shows; this is a tricky decision for filmmakers. It will get costly and need to see where our target group is. Where can it be more viewed where is bigger community of Nepali movies. If you ask me target big cities of UK USA and Australia (I am really excited about Loot as it has decided to start its screening on Australia and India). And, what about Khadi rastra. I understand attempts are being made and will be made. But, we cannot be late on it. Put the gear on and accelerate. It’s high time and has to be made full use. We have plenty of our fellow friends working and studying there who are compiled to watch Hindi movies instead of our own Nepali movies let’s target that.
- Use next flex, YouTube pay per view, iTunes etc; pirated movies are often uploaded on YouTube. Instead of giving those people chance to upload it. After certain month or year of release let's just make it available to audience via web. When First love was uploaded to YouTube it had 23,000 views just in a week. Now just think about those number in half or even in quarter. If it was paid as pay per view? I know it's tough to insist everyone to do that. But proper awareness would make that number to maximum.
Let's use technology as our mediums to start new market for Nepali movies along side other strategy.
So next time when I am watching HIGHWAY I would get message from Deepak Dai saying "thanks bro. Let me know how you feel". And never worry if someone is watching a pirated version or not. And I would get message asking for link along side "Kati pardo rahecha".
I express my deep apology to all filmmakers whose movies which were pirated. But , we had no choice next time lets give us a choice. And I bet 70% will choose filmmakers’ way .
I enjoyed the article. I think the key factor will be removing incentive (moderately high cost of dvd and blu ray). It may not be what we want to hear but dvd and blu ray costs need to come way down and online viewing, well it's already cheap, but must remain that way and must be well advertised so that audience will have easy access. Perhaps the cheap and easy access of the film through the film owners will defeat the cheap and easy access to the film by pirates.
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