Dear Editor,
At one time in the modern world, the radio was the most popular and advanced form of communication. Whole communities would gather around a single radio to listen to the news and other programmes. With the advent of television, radio lost its popularity and its place in communication is no longer on the high pedestal where it was once placed. Of radio and television, the latter seems to be the preferred communication mode which has given rise to mega industries in a technologically advanced world. With television you can see the images as well as hear the voices.
But in Guyana what we have are not really television stations but television relay stations which thrive on copyright infringements and violations by pirating programme signals emanating from various parts of the world and beamed from satellites in space. These pirated programmes, many of which are financially sponsored by local businesses through advertisements, are then sent to our homes and offices. Our television stations, therefore, profit by stealing signals and our wider business community supports this criminality.
The vexatious issue of pirating and selling what does not belong to us by those calling themselves the pioneers of television in Guyana is continuing and will continue as long as we fail to have our own copyright laws. Distributors of films made in Bollywood (Mumbai, India) had in the past advised against our television stations showing movies not yet screened in cinemas. Some of these complaints even ended up in our courts.
Today, a new dimension has been added to our penchant for copyright violation with the adaptation of Hindi films to our stage. Some months ago, I attended the stage adaptation of Dosti a Hindi classic of yesteryear. Sadly, the adaption was of an extremely poor quality and lent insult to the producers of that movie. Having supported that illegality by attending, for which I had to be cajoled by my family which I now regret, I believed then that the embarrassing degradation of such a classical movie would have scuttled any idea of a repeat of a stage adaptation of another film by the local producers and stage adaptors. That is not the case and today we are being told that the 2003 classic, Baghban, starring the evergreen maestro Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini with Salman Khan in a special appearance, will be staged shortly at the National Cultural Centre (NCC). This movie tells a great story about a family where the parents sacrificed everything to nurture their four children only to be left neglected when they (the parents) grew old. It is drawn from the genre of family and drama movies and has been a box office success in India and elsewhere.
For the NCC stage adaption of this film, we are told through advertisements that “The Indian Arrival Committee (IAC) presents Baghban” giving the distinct impression that this is probably a play produced by the IAC. Maybe the IAC is now in the production of films. If this is not an IAC original production, then the stage adaptation of Baghban or any other movie produced in Mumbai or elsewhere in India and governed and protected by copyright laws in India, then the IAC must have clearance from the producers through the local Indian High Commission for its stage adaptation here.
I am not convinced that there is a willingness on our part to respect the copyrights protecting such investments on which huge sums were spent in their production. I must ask, therefore, whether the IAC along with the group of actors are involved in a copyright violation of a movie over which they have no legal or moral rights, and whether the stage adaptation of Baghban has been authorized by the producers.
If it has not, then I am appalled that an organization such as the IAC would be involved in the illegal act of copyright violation when our own fledgling arts industry had in the past complained bitterly about the absence of laws to protect their productions. We have developed a culture of piracy of almost every conceivable thing in the arts, and this may be the reason why our local productions lack creativity and insight. Trying to bring to stage 120 minute-long Indian classical movies is a most stupid thing for us to attempt. The sets, props and performances are bound to be pathetic at best as so aptly demonstrated in Dosti. So, when you visit the NCC this weekend for the stage adaptation of Baghban you may be a supporter of an illegality and if so you would have lost your moral high ground to condemn illegality in any form in our society.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed I. Ally
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Mr Neaz Subhan, Director of Baghban, for any comment he might wish to make.
