Two days ahead of its release, clips from the upcoming Tamil film Master leaked on social media on Monday. What followed was a furore against piracy, especially, after the film’s director Lokesh Kanagaraj urged people on social media to stop sharing the clips and report them.
Master will release in theatres across India on Wednesday.
Dear all
It's been a 1.5 year long struggle to bring Master to u. All we have is hope that you'll enjoy it in theatres. If u come across leaked clips from the movie, please don't share it 🙏🏻 Thank u all. Love u all. One more day and #Master is all yours.— Lokesh Kanagaraj (@Dir_Lokesh) January 11, 2021
The crew of the film, starring Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi, also took to Twitter to share their stand against piracy.
In 2020, Sethupathi’s film Ka Pae Ranasingam also became the victim of piracy after the film was leaked on the piracy site Tamil Rockers two hours after its digital release on Zee Plex on a pay-per-view basis. Once purchased, the viewership time remains valid for 48 hours.
Other films, like Ananya Panday and Ishaan Khatter-starrer Khaali Peeli and Anushka Shetty-starrer multilingual film Nishabdham, were also leaked by Tamil Rockers after their release on Zee Plex and Amazon Prime Video respectively.
The easy availability of big-ticket-films has enabled popular piracy sites to release the version in HD prints.
SR Prabhu, producer of another big-banner film Sulthan (starring Karthi), said: “Avoiding piracy is not a choice. You can control it, thereby, minimising the damage. It all depends on the demand for the content. If there is a content that nobody wants to watch, even if you give it to them, they won’t watch it.”
Although the Centre added two Digital Rights Management (DRM) provisions to the Copyright Amendment Act of 2012, to curb digital piracy, it has been of little help, as it comes with its territorial limitations.
It’s the hard work of 1000s of people. Please report any leaked clips immediately to report@blockxpiracy.com 🙏🏻 https://t.co/bjpC4fOR95
— Anirudh Ravichander (@anirudhofficial) January 11, 2021
Team #MasterFilm has found out an employee of @SdcDigitalCinem Digital Service Provider has leaked the scenes..
Legal action is sought against the employee and company.. https://t.co/ID2zcQEDzs
— Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) January 12, 2021
XB Film Creators, creators of Master, asked people to report the leaked content at report@blockxpiracy.com.
Other anti-piracy sites also came forward and opened up their helplines to report the film’s leaked content.
Report “MASTER“ piracy links 24/7 to “Copyright@massbunkantipiracy.com” or DM us the links. Please don't support piracy 🙏🏽 #Watch_It_In_Theatres #MasterPongal2021 @actorvijay @Lalit_SevenScr @7screenstudio @Dir_Lokesh @VijaySethuOffl @MalavikaM_ @anirudhofficial @XBFilmCreators pic.twitter.com/G5aJyARudX
— MassBunk Antipiracy (@MassBunk_Anti) January 11, 2021
Although Silverscreen India could not reach any of the actors or makers of the film, the film’s public relations manager Riaz said that all of the leaked content has been taken off social media.
“Everyone is busy with their (respective) departments’ work, since hardly a few hours is left before the film’s release tomorrow,” Riaz said.
Filmmakers, actors and fans began flooding Twitter with #WeStandWithMaster to show their solidarity with the film.
#MasterPongal we all will and should watch it only in theaters!!!#KillPiracy 🙏 https://t.co/qyXREeYmN3
— Prashanth Neel (@prashanth_neel) January 12, 2021
There will be lot of hardwork behind a cinema. Dont encourage leaked scenes/ piracy!
As @KicchaSudeep #KicchaSudeep fans, We know that pain. We show our support to @actorvijay Sir and the whole team of #Master and wish you good luck for the movie#WeStandWithMaster pic.twitter.com/TdCCUotxH0
— Vinay shetty (@Vinay045shetty) January 12, 2021
Master was supposed to release in 2020 but was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the release date was pushed to Pongal 2021. The film also features actors Malavika Mohanan, Andrea Jeremiah, Shanthanu Bakyaraj and others.
