Days after Rajinikanth’s latest blockbuster Kabali released worldwide to a record-shattering response, several leaks of the movie have been doing the rounds. Piracy is an inescapable reality of world cinema.

But digital pirates, possibly in Malaysia, have released the HD version of Kabali on a website, with a dire warning to the distributors in Malaysia.

In a note addressed to Malik Streams Corporation, the Malaysian distributors of the movie, the pirates say, “Special note : Malik streams corporation SDN BHD. If you send gangsters to CD shop's to "collect" money then this will be the gift for all the movies u distribute.” (sic)

It is understood that the pirates say that if the distributors continue to make money by extorting CD shops – shops selling pirated version of the movie in CDs – then every film hereon from the Malik stable will be released in HD online. It is of course not known if the distributors are really indulging in taking money from the CD shops. 

The movie has been facing piracy issues since its first day of release. 

It was released on Vimeo and several other Tamil websites. Most of the prints that were doing the rounds earlier seemed to be recorded in theatres as the audiences can be heard shouting and whistling.

One site even allowed the direct download of any video on their website. The link to the movie was also being widely circulated on Whatsapp groups.