‘Premam’ leak: Three students arrested

Three students from the city of Kollam in Kerala were arrested by the Kerala Police Anti-Piracy Cell in the ongoing investigation into the leak of the censor copy of Malayalam film Premam.

The three school children, who allegedly uploaded the film on the internet, were taken into custody from their homes early on Tuesday. They are now being interrogated by the police.

Premam, being touted as a film that will break collection records, was hit by the leak scandal soon after its release, prompting its producer Anwar Rasheed to withdraw his membership from all Malayalam film organisations.

The leaked copy, which was freely available online, had the watermark of the Central Board of Film Certification, causing uproar among the Malayalam film fraternity.

Meanwhile, the mother of one of the students expressed her anger over the arrests.

“These kids are being made scapegoats because they did what all others did and they saw the film on the mobile. Baseless stories are being circulated that these young kids have links with a mafia. We will deal with this case legally,” she told reporters.

The children’s neighbours also expressed their anger at the police for trying to wriggle out of the case by charging the young students.

Liberty Basheer, head of the Kerala Film Exhibitors Federation, said the arrests mean nothing. Basheer earlier said his organisation would close 380 theatres on July 9 to protest the lack of action against piracy of new films.

“There are people from the film industry itself who have done this and if such characters are not nabbed we will not go back on the July 9 token strike. The police have clear evidence with them,” Basheer told reporters.

The film stars Nivin Pauly, billed as the rising star of the Malayalam film industry, through a string of hugely popular films such as Bangalore Days, Oru Vadekan Selfie and Ivide to name a few.

Meanwhile, CBFC chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani is expected to arrive in the state capital in the coming days to personally oversee the probe.