The Hyderabad police arrested six men on Tuesday evening for allegedly trying to extort money from Karan Johar . (Source: Bollywood Hungama)

The Hyderabad police arrested six men on Tuesday evening for allegedly trying to extort money from Karan Johar and other producers of the blockbuster film “Bahubali 2: The Conclusion”, by threatening to circulate a pirated copy, reported news agency PTI. Deputy commissioner of police Avinash Mohanty told the agency that the men arrested in the case demanded Rs 15 lakh from the producers of the film in exchange of not uploading a copy on the internet.

As per the complaint lodged on April 29, a man called Rahul Mehta, who said he represented an `anti-piracy agency’, approached the producers and told them that a pirated high definition print of the film was available. “Mehta showed them a sample video…and informed that release of pirated copy would be withheld for a few days and demanded money,” Mohanty said. Among the six men arrested, one is the owner of a theatre in Bihar.

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The producers of the film kept talking with these people while informing the police. As per the agency, Mehta was arrested on May 11 from Jubilee Hills area of Hyderabad. After this, he named Jitender Mehta, Taufiq and Mohammad Ali as accomplices. The three were arrested in Delhi the next day. Out of these, Jitender and Taufiq have past criminal records and were arrested by Jabalpur police in Madhya Pradesh for piracy of the “Bahubali-The Beginning” in 2015.

Later, the police also arrested Divakar Kumar, owner of a theatre in Begusarai district of Bihar and Chandan from Patna. The DCP told PTI that Monu, who is absconding, and Divakar made a digital copy of the film.

Baahubali 2 has broken all box-office records so far and is doing exceptionally well in and outside India. Karan Johar is co-producer of Hindi version of the film.