The film ‘Udta Punjab’ seems to be fighting multiple battles. After its tussle with the CBFC over its censorship, now, the actors of the movie have embarked on another battle, this time against piracy, after the movie was leaked online just two days before its release.
Read Also: ‘Udta Punjab’ Online Leak: Complaint Filed With Cyber Crime Cell
But here’s the interesting thing: the leaked copy has a watermark stating ‘For Censor’, suggesting that the copy was submitted to the Central Board for Film Certification for review. The copy even features scenes that the Censor Board had objected to, pointing to a leak from within the Censor Board itself.
The movie’s lead actors, Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and even, its supporter Karan Johar, aggressively tweeted on Twitter asking people to stay away from downloaded prints.
Using the idiosyncratic hashtag #piracydimaadi, a pun on the movie’s tagline, Shahid Kapoor started an online trend in a bid to stop people from downloading the movie online and urged them to watch it in cinemas.
After the actor’s tweets, Alia Bhatt followed the actor’s request with a Tweet of her own.
After the emotional appeals, the actors took a more direct way to prevent people from watching it online: by suggesting that a virus may infect the user’s device if they download the pirated copy.
We don’t know if what the actors claim is true or not, but, smart move, team!
Suspicion Falls on CBFC for Leak
The movie was leaked online on Wednesday, and the Udta Punjab team promptly filed a complaint with the Cyber Crime cell against the leak.
Most of the online copies have been removed, but the source of the leak is not yet known, however, industry insiders are saying that it is perhaps a vindictive move on the part of the Censor Board, that just lost by a 0-1 against the movie’s makers.
Previously, a Censor Board copy of the Marathi film ‘Sairat’ was leaked online, affecting the business of the film by at least 10%, according to one of the film’s producers.
The movie, Udta Punjab, seeks to fight against the growing drug menace in Punjab with its content.
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