'Gali Gali...' screening in Anna village raises piracy fears

Mumbai, Jan 25 (IANS) Though Anna Hazare watched "Gali Gali Mein Chor Hai" with much enthusiasm along with other people in his Ralegan Siddhi village Tuesday evening, it's said some villagers in the audience might have recorded footage of the film, raising fears of piracy.

The social crusader had a ball watching Akshaye Khanna rough up corrupt politicians and bureaucrats in the film which still has three weeks to go for its release.

Apparently, some of the 3,000 members in the audience were spotted recording the footage during the two-and-a-half uninterrupted screening under a massive tent especially erected in the village.

But director Rumi Jaffery is not worried. "Let them pirate the film, if that's the price for what we achieved on Tuesday evening. Simply seeing Aana Saab sit next to me to watch the film without an intermission, enjoying my film so much, clapping his hands and chuckling at the satire and seeing his face break into a childlike grin was enough compensation for the damage that might be caused to the film's commercial prospects."

"There's no film theatre in Anna Saab's village. Our entire team of Akshaye Khanna, Shriya Saran, Mugdha Godse, producer Nitin Manmohan and I drove down from Pune to Anna Saab's village with full equipment and a CD of the film for screening," he said.

"Yes, piracy of my film is now a very real danger. There were nearly 3,000 people watching the film in that tent with Anna Saab. Anyone could have copied the film on a camera. But we're ready to tackle the risks. At least we did something that no filmmaker has done in our country. We actually showed our anti-corruption film to the crusader against corruption."

Apparently, Hazare had not seen any film for the last 40 years. He was clueless about the identity of the actors.

Says Rumi, "He didn't know any of us. He just knew we had made a film against corruption. We went to great lengths to get him to agree to see our film. Our team was in Anna Saab's village for nearly a week making arrangements for the screening. But the effort was worth it." Click the Movie button below for more info:
Gali Gali Chor Hai