The release date of the third instalment in the "Masti" series was changed, from July 22 to July 15, due to the online leak.
Director Indra Kumar and film's cast including Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani and Urvashi Rautela today expressed their displeasure over the dampening effect of leak on its box-office collection.
"It's a big loss for us. This has happened for the first time when a film is leaked 17 days before its official release. It has killed our film. It's a tough time for us. We are sad and upset," Kumar said in a press conference held here.
According to the makers, the movie has earned over Rs two crore at the box office on its opening day.
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They have already filed a complaint with Cyber crime cell and that the investigations are on in full swing.
Riteish revealed that it was through one of their fans
that they learnt the film was leaked online.
"We were at IIFA awards when we saw a fan posting an image from the film and it had 'For Censor' written on it. We initially thought it's a movie still but later learnt that the film was released online," Riteish said.
Urvashi said the leak was akin to murdering the movie.
"When 'Udta Punjab' got leaked online, all of us felt bad. I never expected that my film will also face a similar situation. It's really disheartening. It's nothing less than a murder."
Despite the film being available online, the team did not stop promoting the film.
"We thought by talking about our problem, we would in a way tell people that our film is already available before its official release. This would mean more loss. So we thought about talking about the issue after the film is officially out," Aftab said.