Bollywood, Hollywood join hands against piracy

Leading Indian and US film makers have formed a Hollywood-Bollywood coalition to fight piracy in the South Asian nation - one of the world's biggest movie markets.

Dan Glickman, chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America, told reporters in New Delhi on Friday the "menace" of copyright infringement jeopardised a film's ability to make money.

"I hear that pirated DVDs enter the Indian market even before the official release. This has to be stopped," Glickman said.

Among the Indian studios joining the alliance are UTV Motion Pictures, Reliance Big Entertainment and YashRaj Films.

Indian consumers snap up 700 million illegal DVDs every year, at the expense of box office revenue.

A study by the US-India Business Council and consultancy Ernst & Young showed that piracy cost the Indian film industry 959 million dollars and an estimated 571,000 jobs in 2008.

Glickman said the coalition would protect content and the creative community in India.

India's film and television industry generated revenue of 7.7 billion dollars in 2008 and the figure is expected to top 13 billion dollars by 2015, according to the study conducted by consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.