A majority of those who saw Tashan were glad that the movie didn’t release in multiplexes. Those who haven’t seen the movie are even happier that it didn’t come out in multiplexes. Who wants to fork out a couple of hundred rupees for a dull dud of a movie? My guess would be: not many.

The film’s promos had managed to generate a lot of interest and excitement. The love affair between the two leading actors of the movie had created a bigger flutter and the movie’s release was eagerly anticipated for a variety of reasons. But Tashan’s producers had some spat with the multiplexer owners and before ardent cinema fans could contemplate going to a single-screen theatre, the movie’s reviews were out. And they weren’t good. Wouldn’t it then be much easier, better and cheaper to watch the movie on a pirated DVD? The answer is yes, which brings me to the subject matter of this piece.

The Indian Film Industry has been crying foul over video piracy of movies for a long time now. They have been complaining and telling us how piracy is ruining the industry. But in a way, by making movies that are just not worth their while, they are themselves supporting piracy. Video piracy is rampant not because cinema viewers don’t want to shell out money for movie tickets; it’s rampant because a lot of the movies produced are just not worth their while.

Let me explain. Taare Zameen Par (TZP) released last year and was met with overwhelming response. The advance bookings were supposedly good and got better once the rave reviews were out. I am sure there was hardly any person, ardent cinema fan or not, who watched TZP on DVD for the first time. The same would be the case of recent movies like Guru, Chak De India, Jab We Met, Race and others.

Compare these movies to recent duds like Tashan, One Two Three, Sunday, and a few more. These movies generated good amount of interest as well, but when the public learnt about their bad reviews, they didn’t go to a theatre or multiplex to watch them. Those who still wanted to see the movies rented DVDs. I did the same thing and it makes sense.

Going to a multiplex is a costly affair. So when I find out that a movie is not that good, I prefer to check it out on a pirated DVD. I didn’t support piracy myself, but I didn’t think wrong of it after I watched Jhoom Barabar Jhoom. That movie had such a senseless storyline that it felt like the actors were laughing at me sitting in the audience because they had fooled me into spending my good money to watch an appalling film. The same happened sometime back with Neel & Nikki. Once bitten, twice shy and very very cautious after being bitten twice, I decided that I would read the reviews before going to watch a movie.

In short, what the film industry really needs to do to curb piracy is make better movies. Movies with strong storylines are always going to get a good audience. Time to concentrate on quality, I guess, and not quantity.