Agencies
Posted: Apr 15, 2009Identifying Dawood Ibrahim as the "godfather" of India's organised crime, an influential US lawmaker has said the underworld don's D-company, which also supports al-Qaeda, is heavily involved in Bollywood and linked to piracy in a big way.
"If you think about it, the godfather of godfathers, as he's called, of Indian organised crime, Dawood Ibrahim, is linked to piracy in a big way," Congressman Ed Royce said during a field hearing on piracy orgnaised by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs in Los Angles.
"Frankly he is a big supporter of al-Qaeda, and in the past, also the LeT (Lashkar-e-Taiba)," Royce said and held him responsible for the series of Mumbai blasts in 1993.
The Republican lawmaker said at the hearing last week that "D-Company is the operation" run by Dawood now.
"It's (D-Company) now integrated into every part of the Indian filmmaking industry, from distribution to loan-sharking, and I guess a special irony here, for those of you who saw 'Slumdog Millionaire' is the fact that a lot was made of organised crime there and the way in which corruption has that insidious effect," he said.
"Think, for a minute: the very people portrayed, the very organised crime syndicate, are involved today in pirating and undermining Bollywood, and undermining Hollywood," he said during the hearing, according to a transcript made available to reporters.
"If they weren't tied to terrorists that were engaged in this kind of activity we'd have enough to worry about; but this should really focus our attention, I'm afraid. The high profit margins in this kind of crime make it little wonder why gangsters and terrorists have turned to piracy," Royce said.
In his opening remarks, Congressman Howard Berman, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said India needs to seriously address the issue of Intellectual Property Rights protection and prevent piracy of movies, which is resulting in huge loss to the entertainment industry both in Hollywood and Bollywood.
"Its own homegrown entertainment industry, Bollywood, is subject to many of the same concerns that plague Hollywood. We need to do better at protecting Bollywood films when pirated copies are sold in mom and pop shops here in the US," the Democrat said.
"As evident with the crossover success and number of pirated copies of 'Slumdog Millionaire' viewed in India, India needs to enforce adequate protections for multinational innovation as well," he said.
Source: http://www.screenindia.com
