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Baahubali: The Conclusion might have surpassed the usual Bollywood fare, but the SS Rajamouli film suffered the same fate as Dangal and many other blockbusters, thanks to an unfortunate online leak.
The leaked version of the grand sequel was reportedly hosted on dailymotion.com for a brief period, before it was taken down. According to reports, several other pirate sites were also hosting a camera version of the film or some of its crucial scenes a few days before its release. This came shortly after I&B minister Venkaiah Naidu reportedly called it a shining example of ‘Make In India’.
Viewers in Pakistan and Kuwait reportedly managed to stream a pirated version of the entire film for almost an hour, as well as a crucial battle scene, on Facebook, a day before the film’s official release. In fact, the film’s trailer (Tamil) too was leaked online before its scheduled official launch.
It is indeed sad when a film like Baahubali is leaked online. When productions with such huge budgets are not able to stop their film from being leaked online, how can small budget films be saved? The only silver lining that we see here is that it is not an HD version, so it will not deter people from coming to cinema halls. At least we hope so.Yogesh Raizada, Corporate Head of Wave Cinemas
Big films like Dangal, Udta Punjab, Sultan and Begum Jaan were also leaked online around their theatrical releases. Baahubali co-producer Prasad Devineni also reportedly stressed on the fact that taking legal action against pirates is extremely difficult, as the servers through which these leaks happen, are overseas. So by the time the Indian government requests action to be taken at a diplomatic level, the damage has already been done.
Filmmakers and trade analysts are concerned about the fact that if mega blockbusters like Baahubali are not able to guard their content against pirates, what hope do smaller budget films have in this battle?
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