The average life span of a new-release in Tamil cinema is just one week-end. Blame it on piracy. Within just three shows on the first day of its screening, the pirated versions of a film is out in over 100 websites.

What more thanks to technology, these prints are shared rapidly through smart phones. The average loss of Tamil cinema per year is pegged at over Rs 300 crore.

Though Tamil Film Producers Council had taken various efforts to address the issue, yet the trouble is on a high. The association even announced Rs one lakh as reward to those who provide information about recording movies in their cellphones in cinema halls.

But the idea was a non-starter. Several theatres that illegally allowed piracy in their campus were handed red handed and no new movies were released there. Even this has not stopped newly-released movies coming out in Torrents.

The need of the hour is string law by the State government. The anti-piracy squad is toothless. It is empowered to raid shops selling DVDs. Rather the officials concerned should understand that it is the technology that they have to counter.

Hardly five per cent of the piracy is through such shops. The rest is through Internet. Officials in the department need to be trained in a scientific and systematic way. Kerala has managed to curb the menace to a greater extent, why not Tamilnadu?