After Varun Dhawan's Baby John becomes victim of piracy, trade and producers raise alarm

Varun Dhawan in Baby John

Indian authorities appear to have had little headway in tackling the menace of pirated cinematic content in the aftermath of the Pushpa 2: The Rule fiasco, when crucial scenes of the Allu Arjun-starrer were leaked online within days of its release. The latest film to fall prey to piracy is the Christmas release, Baby John, starring Varun Dhawan, which has already illegally made its way to the content-sharing platform, Telegram.

Producers and trade experts are rightly raising alarm about the escalating concern, with several organisations now being urged to take action to combat the spread of high-definition prints. The matter, we are told, will be discussed at the next meeting of the Producers Guild of India, informs a committee member. "Released just 10 days ago, Mufasa has also fallen victim to piracy, with its HD version surfacing online on Thursday. Earlier, pirated versions would appear months after theatrical releases, often coinciding with or following their OTT debut. Now, we're seeing leaks of pristine-quality prints within days of release. The fact that the audience is not willing to go to the theatres is causing this demand. But what is shocking is that this is being facilitated. Telegram, with its ability to disseminate large files quickly, has become the primary conduit for such piracy," the member informs.

A producer, who is also a Guild member, tells mid-day on the condition of anonymity, "For every ticket lost to piracy, jobs, livelihoods, and future investments are put at stake. I have lost approximately R20 crore because of piracy when a film that I had produced had been prematurely leaked. An expensive film like Baby John, which has been made on a budget of R130 crores, may [only collect] R40 crore, because the film is already out for people to download. We will be discussing this with the Guild members because we have big titles like Game Changer, Chhaava, Sikandar, and Sitaare Zameen Par [up for release this year]."