“Kabali” has already declared war on film pirates and vowed to finish off the thriving black market for films, music and all forms of creative art. TNN

CHENNAI: No one knows what superstar Rajinikanth's “Kabali” has in store for fans, as the film is a good week away from its scheduled release on July 22. But, in real life, “Kabali” has already declared war on film pirates and vowed to finish off the thriving black market for films, music and all forms of creative art.

Producer of the movie S Thanu has moved the Madras high court to stop illegal download of the film by about 180 named websites and countless unknown sites, senior advocate Vijay Narayan told TOI.

The writ petition filed by Thanu wants the court to direct Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to issue instructions to all service providers to block websites offering illegal download of the film.

Tamil Nadu Anti-Piracy Cell too has been made a party in order to ensure compliance in the immediate neighbourhood.

The case will be heard by Justice N Kirubakaran on Thursday morning.

To demonstrate the extent of possible piracy, the petitioner has enclosed the screenshot of one website which boasts that visitors could access 30 films, at the rate of 12,000 downloads.

"We have arranged a live demo of another site, to exhibit that for as little Rs 10 an entire feature film could be downloaded. From that single copy several thousand copies could be made and sold in black market," said Vijay Narayan. While the pirates make Rs 20 to 30 a copy, the total loss falls on the producers, artistes and others involved in the making of a multicrore film, he said.

Taking the case well beyond the immediate interest of “Kabali,” the writ petition says more than 70% of total revenue generated online was garnered by illegal downloads of films, music and pornography. Only 30% was paid for by people using for legal purposes on legal means, he said.

In fact, the upgrade of technology from 2G to 3G and then to 4G was mainly to facilitate the illegal downloads, Vijay Narayan said. For normal users 2G was enough, he said.

