Even as a section of fans discussed Kabali on social media sites, there were others who were seeing the illegal copy of the film online.
Producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu, who has produced the film under his banner V. Creations, had approached the Madras High Court to obtain an interim injunction restraining more than 160 Internet Service Providers in India from allowing people to access illegal websites that indulge in piracy.
After the initial online leak of a short clip of the movie, the makers had tweeted, urging them to take a stand against piracy. They had also requested fans to write to an e-mail id and had provided a phone number to report illegal links of the film.
However, such measures weren’t enough to curb piracy as a number of short videos and fairly decent pirated copies of the film emerged online. After producer Kalaipuli S. Thanu obtained the order, a website that hosts illegal content of Tamil movies openly said that they would upload Kabali on Friday morning.
This is expected to become a flashpoint in the debate about piracy and how to monetise the film’s content effectively.
Senthil Kumar, co-founder, Real Image Technologies, suggested that a stronger law against ‘illegal recording’ of a film would definitely curb such instances. “The fans should also be given incentives to report on someone indulging in illegally recording films. Also, there should be CCTV monitoring of the cabins where the projectors are kept,” he said.
While the film is expected to run houseful until Sunday, it is expected that more such illegal copies of the film will be available in the coming days. “If a film is unanimously declared a hit, then there is no problem. It will not be affected by piracy. But, if such a big film gets a mixed review, then people might prefer to watch a pirated version at home,” said G. Dhananjayan, producer and founder, Blue Ocean Film and Television Academy.
