It’s a nightmare for every producer. In the age of social media, producers are invariably on tenterhooks a week before the release. Because that’s when the final copy of their film is handled by a number of people and agencies to ensure its smooth and unhindered release. And that’s exactly when it can be pirated.
The worst has happened to one of the biggest films of this year, Sikandar. The film, produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, was available on countless sites for viewing and downloading last evening (29th March), hours before it was scheduled to hit the screens this morning (30th). It had been pirated!
Countless people are said to have enjoyed and are still enjoying the film on their laptops and mobile phones for free. While many were unaware that they were indulging in criminal activity by watching the film illegally, there were many others who went ahead with the viewing even though they were aware of the piracy angle and of the crime angle.
The fear of the film being pirated on illegal movie downloading sites is so big that a producer could go to any lengths to ensure that that doesn’t happen to his film. Despite precautions, the leakage could happen anytime and from anywhere. The final film has to pass so many channels that it often becomes impossible to understand when and from where it was pirated.
In the case of Sikandar, the piracy could cost the film at least 30-40% of its revenue from theatrical sales.
Reportedly, Sajid Nadiadwala and his team worked all night yesterday with the authorities and managed to pull down the film from around 600 sites. While this exercise took several hours, the harm had already been done in minutes. The pirated copy of the film was in circulation — on the many sites and in people’s cell phones as members of the public kept forwarding it when it reached them.
