It was a day of mixed feelings.
On one hand, really good feedback kept coming in for Athazham's latest episode which, needless to say, took me right to cloud nine! People were sharing it with their friends, I was receiving a lot of messages from not just friends, but also complete strangers, some of them really quite sweet - one even went to say that the episodes are helping me feel good during an otherwise tough time!
On top of that, a friend called up to say that he met with a couple of film makers who want to make a film in Singapore and they are looking for relevant technicians, including the director, and that he thought it should be something that's right up my alley. Am not yet too sure of what's going to come out of that, but I thought it was pretty cool I am being considered as a serious director these days!
So yes, all that is super cool stuff in the film making world - being able to reach people, getting appreciation, being considered for more film making opportunities. Super grateful for all of it!
Now here comes the downside. It is also a field, as with any creative fields these days, plagued by plagiarism and absolute lack of respect for the idea of copyright.
Inganeyum Oru Katha - a Malayalam short film I had made a few years ago, remains my most popular work till date, crossing 300,000 views on Youtube. Some broadcasting networks like MalayalamTV in the US and RadioVOX in Middle East had also broadcasted it, after getting the due permission from me - and it's always been given for free as my only objective was more reach and no commercial gain. Those folks asked me for permission to feature, and I let them.
A couple of scenes from the film were also ripped, word by word, shot by shot, in a short film that was on Youtube. But that wasn't a big deal because it was done by a bunch of college students and I thought the whole thing was rather cute.
Recently however, a channel that claims to be the first regional Malayalam channel in UAE - NTV - telecast the film. It came to my notice because a few friends from UAE congratulated me on the film after watching it on TV! I was a bit taken aback because they had not gotten any permission from me to telecast this film.
A mutual contact in UAE said he will just check in on them on how this happened. And guess what their reply was? "It is on Youtube, which is public domain - so we can use it any way we want.".
Wow, seriously?
Why don't they broadcast the biggest Malayalam films, all available on Youtube, for free then?
I can imagine youngsters dabbling with filming or people not from the industry thinking this way, but how can a professional, commercial broadcasting channel be this ridiculous!
Anyway, that was a good lesson on how people can walk all over you at the slightest opportunity and that sometimes, there is pretty much zero integrity in this field, even with the apparent biggies.
I guess for now, I will just be happy that they thought my film was good enough to steal it. I will also just continue enjoying the response to Athazham until someone completely steals that too and spoils the fun.
On one hand, really good feedback kept coming in for Athazham's latest episode which, needless to say, took me right to cloud nine! People were sharing it with their friends, I was receiving a lot of messages from not just friends, but also complete strangers, some of them really quite sweet - one even went to say that the episodes are helping me feel good during an otherwise tough time!
On top of that, a friend called up to say that he met with a couple of film makers who want to make a film in Singapore and they are looking for relevant technicians, including the director, and that he thought it should be something that's right up my alley. Am not yet too sure of what's going to come out of that, but I thought it was pretty cool I am being considered as a serious director these days!
So yes, all that is super cool stuff in the film making world - being able to reach people, getting appreciation, being considered for more film making opportunities. Super grateful for all of it!
Now here comes the downside. It is also a field, as with any creative fields these days, plagued by plagiarism and absolute lack of respect for the idea of copyright.
Inganeyum Oru Katha - a Malayalam short film I had made a few years ago, remains my most popular work till date, crossing 300,000 views on Youtube. Some broadcasting networks like MalayalamTV in the US and RadioVOX in Middle East had also broadcasted it, after getting the due permission from me - and it's always been given for free as my only objective was more reach and no commercial gain. Those folks asked me for permission to feature, and I let them.
A couple of scenes from the film were also ripped, word by word, shot by shot, in a short film that was on Youtube. But that wasn't a big deal because it was done by a bunch of college students and I thought the whole thing was rather cute.
Recently however, a channel that claims to be the first regional Malayalam channel in UAE - NTV - telecast the film. It came to my notice because a few friends from UAE congratulated me on the film after watching it on TV! I was a bit taken aback because they had not gotten any permission from me to telecast this film.
A mutual contact in UAE said he will just check in on them on how this happened. And guess what their reply was? "It is on Youtube, which is public domain - so we can use it any way we want.".
Wow, seriously?
Why don't they broadcast the biggest Malayalam films, all available on Youtube, for free then?
I can imagine youngsters dabbling with filming or people not from the industry thinking this way, but how can a professional, commercial broadcasting channel be this ridiculous!
Anyway, that was a good lesson on how people can walk all over you at the slightest opportunity and that sometimes, there is pretty much zero integrity in this field, even with the apparent biggies.
I guess for now, I will just be happy that they thought my film was good enough to steal it. I will also just continue enjoying the response to Athazham until someone completely steals that too and spoils the fun.
Oh no! That is awful. No excuses for what they have done.
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