Tamil film producer S Thanu today moved the Madras High Court seeking to prevent illegal downloads of superstar Rajnikanth's upcoming film 'Kabali' through about 180 websites and "countless unknown sites".
The producer of the film, in his writ petition, sought a direction to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to issue instructions to all service providers to block websites offering illegal download of the film.
Senior Counsel for the producer included Tamil Nadu Anti-Piracy Cell as a respondent to ensure compliance.
The petitioner enclosed the screenshot of a site which claimed that visitors could access 30 films at the rate of 12,000 downloads.
The counsel said they had arranged a live demo of another website to the court, to show that an entire feature film could be downloaded for as little as Rs 10.
From that single copy several thousand copies could be made and sold in the black market, he added.
While the pirates make Rs 20 to 30 a copy, the total loss is incurred by the producers, artists and others involved in the making of a multi-crore film,he contended.
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Making his submissions before Justice N Kirubakaran, counsel Vijay Narain submitted that Rs 100 crore had been spent on producing Kabali with about 3,500 technicians involved in the work.
He said the film was slated to hit thousand of screens all over the world on July 22 and the interim injunction was a must to save the producer for a minimum of 15 days from the date of release.
Producing several DVDs of other films which were recorded and sold immediately on their release, he alleged that state and central authorities were turning a blind eye to infringement of copyright. There was a need for an urgent order of injunction to check the menace, he said.
Charging Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) with not taking action despite having the technology to block websites functioning from foreign soil, he said the regulator should take immediate steps to block them.
He submitted that the producers have identified 225 "rogue" websites and other high courts which heard similar cases had directed blocking them.
Justice Kirubakaran asked Assistant Solicitor General Su. Sreenivasan, who appeared on behalf of the Centre and TRAI, whether such illegal downloads could be stopped or not and said he will pass an order on this in detail.
