‘Pirated copies have only upped publicity for Baahubali 2’

Tamilrockers, a site which is infamous for releasing pirated copies of films simultaneously while the movies are released in theatres, had over 2 lakh downloads of Director SS Rajamouli’s magnum opus within a few hours, before the site was eventually blocked. 

The Tamil Nadu Film Producers’ Council’s anti-piracy cell swiftly took action and blocked all the sites which were offering the pirated version of Baahubali 2. Actor-producer Vishal Krishna who is also the President of the Producers’ Council told DTNext, “We have blocked all the links which were illegally offering Baahubali 2 as a digital download. Moreover, we have traced the IP address of the links and the accused will be nabbed in a day. However, we do not know the identity of the person who leaked the movie.”

By noon, the site had a little over 2.17 lakh confirmed downloads. 

Abirami Ramanathan, president of Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners’ Association told this newspaper, “Baahubali 2 and theatre owners who are showcasing the film will not face any setback due to piracy. In fact, piracy only acts as publicity for the film as the same audience would want to come to theatres and watch the movie to experience the visual effects on the large screen. Only after downloading it from the Internet, will they realise the futility of the attempt as the grandiose nature of the film can only be experienced in theatres.”