'Review restrictions on video rights of Tamil films'

CHENNAI: Keeping in mind the growing potential of home entertainment, the restrictions on release of video rights must be eased by the Tamil film industry, a top official of home video major Moser Baer said here on Thursday.

"The Tamil film industry should follow the example of the Hindi movie industry and should grant such rights for newly released movies atleast within a year," Chief Operating Officer of Moser Baer, G Dhananjayan, told reporters.

At present, there was a restriction of two years for video release of Tamil films.

Inaugurating the first exclusive showroom of Moser Baer here, he claimed such a step would help curb piracy.

"Even video rights of Malayalam films are given within six months," he added.

The company has so far released about 500 titles in Tamil and was in the process of acquiring more including recent releases. "We are willing to pay a lot of money to acquire the rights," he said.

As such, there were ten such outlets in the country and they will be increased soon, he said but did not divulge the proposed number of such showrooms.

To cater to the demands in Chennai, the company was planning to open ten showrooms, he added.