:eek: :eek:
I’ve heard of run down back street shops but had no idea how sophisticated this business had become in Pakistan. Its picking up fast and spreading its tentacles allover. Unfortunately considering the recent opposition to porn shop closures I don’t have much hope on these police operations aiming to crack down on dealers.
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http://www.weeklyindependent.com/exclusive.htm
Local-made porno video production has increased to an alarming proportion, and so has its easy availability in the market.
No, forget cases of date-rapes being recorded. Forget, the privacy of Internet cafes being invaded. Forget the characters trying to hide their faces during such recordings. Of late, those involved in this ghastly business have turned bold enough to ask characters to face the camera with a smile. Also, the VHS camera equipment has been replaced by the digital format, for the enhancement of the quality and long life of the production.
The recent surge in the production of local-made ‘blueprints’, as they are called, has not originated from one city, but from different areas of the province, with the lead characters apparently belonging to rural areas.
“Yes, a lot of video shop owners are selling or renting out such local-made cassettes, the quantity of which has surely increased recently,” a senior police officer admitted, but added the Punjab police are working on a plan to carry out raids.
“We are planning an operation against such elements, may be simultaneously in different cities,” he said, talking to this reporter only on the condition of anonymity. The officer did not identify the areas, however he said some video dealers in Lahore, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, Muridke, Gujranwala and Multan are surely on the list.
“Careful viewing of the cassettes has given us enough evidence which suggests those movies were made in what cities,” he said. “The producers of such movies have tried to make their product as attractive as possible, and included shots of different known locations so as to make it city-specific. In some cases, the conversation of the characters, their accent, and several items in the background indicate that some of them were shot in Multan,” the officer said.
While some of the movies may have been made in other cities, Lahore continues to act as a major source of distribution. “To have an idea prior to launching an operation, a plainclothesman was asked to approach different markets in Lahore as a customer.
He asked for local-made ‘blueprints’ and in return he was asked as to which city production he would like to have, Lahore, Faisalabad, Gujranwala or Sheikhupura,” the officer said.
“You name it, and they have it,” he said.
According to officers in the Investigation Wing, organised gangs either use prostitutes or exploit the poverty of some rural girls, making them perform in front of the camera.
When the first such productions started pouring in the market, they were in fact single-camera shoot, and that too with a VHS camera. Lately, however, some videos available in the market are two-camera shoots, and in one case a three-camera shoot. The lighting expertise also seems professional, with no shadows on the shadowy characters.
Apart from you-know-what scenes, one movie has in it an interview of the girl playing the lead. Sitting next to a boy apparently younger than her, she mentioned how she was deflowered by a young man she loved. “But now I love you, only you,” she said, her face continuously moving from the young man to the camera, and back to him.
“I turned to drugs, and then I turned myself into a prostitute,” she said.
Shot on the rooftop of a house, with a colourful piece of cloth hung as a background, the woman, for a while, stopped the advances of another man, saying first she wanted to give her interview. “Yes, I have been doing this for years, and this is not the first movie I am performing in,” she said.
Minutes later, the two men changed roles - the one in front of camera ended up doing the camera work, and vice versa.
The man in the video claimed he was the producer. “This is my work (the production), and I am not going to do it myself in front of the camera,” he said.
Police officers investigating such crimes say watching or possession of such movies is not just a simple crime. It breeds other crimes as well. “We have cases in our record which prove sexually perverted people with a history of frequently watching such movies end up committing rapes,” one officer said.
The recent surge and the pattern of production follow the net café scandals, which hit the country a few years back. And such CDs continue to pour in. The video and CD shop owners have all such stuff available in their shops, and is offered on rent for Rs20 for a day. The local-made videos, however, have a little high rent, Rs50 to be precise.
**Police officers say the phenomenon is alarming. The demand of local-made ‘blueprint’ videos is on the rise. There are cases in which even non-professionals secretly made videos of girlfriends and marketed it. “The Internet’s biggest minus is the easy-to-use and inexpensive web-cams which are being extensively used in net cafes, places which are frequented by unmarried couples who know nothing,” another officer said. **
Then there is another phenomenon, which needs to be mentioned. The camera mobile are also contributing to this menace. Recently, a 15-year-old schoolboy in India captured indecent acts with his 14-year-old girlfriend on his cell phone and allegedly put it on the web. In minutes, it travelled worldwide. The subsequent investigations led to the identity of the two, and the girl’s family took her to another city to save their honour.
“Yes, a part of the generation X in Pakistan have also started using their cell phones to capture their private moments with their friends, and we fear such clips will end up getting into the market,” the officer said.
Well, the phenomenon of X-rated movies started with the release of mujra videos. The dancing girls, some from the world of stage, gave sizzling performances in front of camera, concentrating more on exposing themselves in stead of trying to get applauds for their dancing expertise. Such videos and CDs were available in the market since long.
Now, the market has new videos, new faces, latest equipment, but the acts of the characters are as dirty as they could be. Not only in Pakistan, such local-made movies are also smuggled to other countries, where, it is said, these are in high demand.
It is high time to arrest this phenomenon, or else it will continue to hit our youth. One hopes the Punjab police’s plans to launch a province-wide operation are implemented as soon as possible. It does look like a crime committed by a few persons, but its impact is colossal.
http://www.weeklyindependent.com/exclusive.htm
