‘Great Grand Masti’ team accuses tribunal of leaking film

The makers of Great Grand Masti have said that the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal is responsible for the leak of the film ahead of its planned July 22 release in India.

The release date of the third instalment in the Masti series was changed to July 15 due to the leak, with the film making Rs2 million (Dh1 million) at the box office on its opening day.

The Film Certification Appellate Tribunal deals with appeals filed by filmmakers unhappy with rulings by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

In a press conference, director Indra Kumar said: “When the Cyber Cell officials went there [FCAT], they found that someone had opened the seal [of the copy of the movie] and put it in an album-like folder and they sealed that.”

“You have to submit a sealed copy,” added actor Vivek Oberoi. “They don’t have the right to receive a copy without a seal, so no one has the right to open that seal. From the condition in which the copies were found, it seemed someone had opened it and put it along with the other films and sealed it with them. That’s what we have been told as revealed from the investigation.”

Actor Riteish Deshmukh said: “From the information we have, we are sure that [leaked copies of] Udta Punjab and Great Grand Masti were FCAT copies.”

The film leaked on a number of digital platforms. Oberoi and Deshmukh also spoke about how the film was illegally shown at a cinema, on cable television, as well as through pirated copies.

Producer Ekta Kapoor was tight-lipped about whether her production company, Balaji Pictures, was being targeted. Her company also produced Udta Punjab.

“If the leak was planned as a ‘Target Balaji’ situation, then it’s most unfortunate but I don’t look at it that way,” she said.

“There are conspiracy theories that have come into play, that we have been informed of, but I don’t want to say it to the press now.”

“We are taking measures for our upcoming films,” she added.

Kumar said the team is “really distressed. All of us are broken, shattered”.

“Two years of hard work and crores [millions] of rupees have just gone down the drain and that is because of piracy.

“Our last franchise did Rs100 crores [Rs1 billion]. With this we were expecting to do Rs150 crores. It was not supposed to open so low. Piracy has hit us right on the head and the heart. We have suffered heavy mental and financial loss. The government definitely needs to do something about piracy,” Kumar said.

The film, which is heavy on adult content, will not get a UAE release, a local distributor told tabloid!,

Stars have spoken out about piracy in the industry, with actress Taapsee Pannu reporting that she saw two people on the set of her film watching pirated copies of Masti and Sultan on smartphones.

“It was disheartening to see that a few people don’t value the efforts and pain taken to make a movie. I wish I could make them go through the process of making a film and the hardships we face to deliver the final product, for them to know how big a crime they are doing,” Pannu said in a statement.

“It’s almost like stealing someone’s property illegally. I hope they don’t do this again,” she added.

Salman Khan called piracy “disgusting”.

“These people are nothing less than thieves as they make money in the name of other person’s hard work. [Piracy] is the worst profession,” he said.

“Someone suggested you should put TADA [Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Prevention Act] on people who buy and sell [pirated DVDs]. As we pay tax and Maharashtra has the heaviest tax, something should be done. When two people will go to prison, others will stop it. [Piracy] doesn’t happen in South [India],” he added.