Two of the biggest releases this week — Yash Raj Films’
War
and Chiranjeevi-starrer multilingual period drama
Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy
, have fallen victim to piracy. Both the films have been leaked in HD by notorious piracy website Tamilrockers within the opening hours of its theatrical release, according to
zeebiz.com
[caption id=“attachment_7444021” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]
Posters of Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (left) and War[/caption] Tamilrockers has become infamous for leaking a slew of highly anticipated South Indian, Hollywood, and Bollywood films within a day of their theatrical release. Despite several complaints, ban, and strict action by the court, the filmmakers have failed to fight the menace of piracy, particularly by Tamilrockers. A lot of attempts have been made to stop the menace of online piracy. However, websites like Tamilrockers operate with impunity. Earlier this year, members of the Film Federation of India (FFI) had also asked for the Cinematograph Act to be amended in February. The government, in its response, introduced a bill in Rajya Sabha to impose a strict penalty to combat piracy.
The Indian Express
writes the website keeps switching its domain extension to avoid being caught, and can only be accessed through a proxy server. In the recent past, major big-budget films, including
Dream Girl,
Kaappaan
,
Saaho
,
Judgementall Hai Kya
,
Kabir Singh
,
Bharat,
India’s Most Wanted
,
Kalank
,
Gully Boy
,
De De Pyaar De
,
Student of the Year 2
,
Thugs of Hindostan,
and
Simmba
were made available for illegally downloading and streaming. The second season of Netflix Original series
Sacred Games
was also leaked by the website. Several Hollywood titles have also fallen prey to the website, including
The Lion King
,
Spider-Man: Far From Home
,
Toy Story 4
, Disney’s live-action remake of
Aladdin
, and
Avengers: Endgame
. War, starring Hrithik Roshan, Tiger Shroff, and
Vaani Kapoor
in the lead, is centred on Khalid, an Indian spy, who is tasked by the intelligence agency to eliminate a former spy gone rogue, who incidentally was also Khalid’s mentor. The film has received mixed reviews from
critics
and
audiences
. Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy, on the other hand, is inspired by the life of freedom fighter Uyyalawada Narasimha Reddy, and has been produced by Chiranjeevi’s son and actor Ram Charan.
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