Thiruvananthapuram: The film fraternity in South India has been dealt a second shock within days, with pirated copies of a new Tamil movie being available on the internet.
Within just two days of its spectacularly successful release, copies of the Kamal Hassan-starrer Papanasam have found their way onto the internet. The movie is a remake of the successful Malayalam movie, Drishyam and is directed by Jithu Joseph.
The first internet link of Papanasam appeared by Sunday evening and it quickly spread across portals. The film makers suspect a pirated copy may been made from a theatre. The pirated version has sub-titles.
The development comes close on the heels of a raging controversy over the piracy of super-hit Malayalam movie, Premam, directed by Alphonse Puthran. The movie’s producer Anwar Rasheed has lodged a formal complaint with the police and has also stepped down from all the film fraternity associations, criticising the soft stance taken by the film industry associations on piracy.
Kerala police have so far arrested nine people in connection with illegal uploading or viewing of Premam. Interestingly, despite the piracy menace, Premam has continued to play to packed audiences in theatres.
Premam has also underlined the arrival of Nivin Pauly as the new hero of the Malayalam tinsel world, shaking the decade-long reign of Mohanlal and Mammootty.
The Kerala Film Exhibitors’ Association has assured support to Premam director Anwar Rasheed in his fight against piracy of films, and has contemplated a shutdown of theatres to bring attention to the menace of piracy.
The anti-piracy cell of Kerala police has registered a case and is investigating, following Anwar Rasheed’s complaint of his movie’s pirated versions circulating on internet and in compact disc format. State police chief T.P. Sen Kumar said the investigation was proceeding in the right direction and that it may take some time to get to the truth because of the technical aspects involved.
Central Board of Film Certification chairman Pahlaj Nihalani is expected to visit Kerala this week in the backdrop of allegations that the pirated version may have gone out of the censor board.
