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'American Desi' hit by pirates

Arthur J Pais

You may think Shah Rukh Khan ate up a big chunk of American Desi 's box-office last weekend with his new movie, One 2 Ka 4.

Not so, says Gitesh Pandya, co-producer of American Desi . For he believes One 2 Ka 4 did disappointing business (the distributor did not release the box-office figures but several exhibitors said American Desi did better business than the Shah Rukh Khan misfire in their theaters).

Pandya also knows, as does Eros which distributed Desi in North America, that pirated videos of the movie hit the market at the end of the second week.

Now in its third week, American Desi is a declared hit.

However, last week its weekend gross dwindled by about 57 per cent, a huge change from its second weekend when it fell by about 15 per cent. Last weekend it earned $107,000 and saw its total reach $802,000.

"We could go beyond $1 million," says Pandya about the already profitable film that cost about $250,000. "But unless the fake videos are confiscated soon, it would be difficult to say how much we will be earning in the final round."

He said the Federal Bureau of Investigation's anti-piracy unit has already swung into action. "But the damage has been done," Pandya says.

Theater owners and distributors familiar with piracy said that usually it is the big budget desi movies that are pirated.

"Not many had expected American Desi to be a big hit," said an exhibitor who spoke on condition of anonymity. "So they did not think of making pirated prints." But by the second week, the movie was making desi box-office history. And the pirates got ready with their tools.

Pandya says he has seen some of the illegal prints. "There are chunks of the movie missing," he says. "People should know that... People also missed out something very important.

"They would have had much more fun watching the film in a theatre and laughing out loud along with hundreds of other people."

The legal video and DVD prints will be available only after several months, he said. "The official DVD will of course have a lot more action," Pandya continues. "It will have interviews with the director and cast, and additional footage."

His biggest regret was the piracy would hurt film-makers like him. There are half a dozen other desi films such as ABCD which were made in America and being released in the next few months.

"The less money that we make means it will not be easy for us to make better films," Pandya notes.

American Desi , which opened on 37 screens, is still on 32. It will be showing in several new cities including Hartford, Connecticut, and Raleigh, North Carolina, the coming weekend.

"In a few months, we will be ready to release it in England," Pandya says. "And then in India."

Pandya and his brother Piyush (the film's director) are confident the movie will draw big audiences abroad.

"It is about American Desis, " Pandya says. "But the themes it addresses including culture clash and identity crisis are universal."

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