Kiwi Customs busts pirated Bollywood hit Raavan

Auckland (New Zealand), July 2 (ANI): New Zealand Customs have intercepted a shipment of over 1700 pirated copies of the film, thus preventing an Auckland-based Indian video hire business from hijacking the release of the blockbuster Bollywood movie, Raavan.

According to a BusinessDay report, Raavan, which had its worldwide premiere on June 18, grossed 60,000 dollars on its opening weekend in New Zealand, the third highest for a Bollywood movie in the past year.

The lawyer acting for the film's distributor, Claire Tompkins of intellectual property law firm James and Wells, said her client received an anonymous tip-off about the shipment arriving on the film's opening weekend on June 18.

She filed a Copyright Customs Notice that allowed Customs frontline officers to be on the lookout and detain any pirated copies coming in.

This resulted in the shipment being found and held that weekend.

The importer has since chosen to forfeit the goods rather than face being sued by the official distributor. (ANI)