Seems like Anurag Kashyap’s heartfelt plea asking people to stop torrenting and circulation of his controversial movie Udta Punjab fell into deaf ears. Not only are people downloading and watching the movie in hordes, but even a small-time and unregulated TV channel is playing it on air.
Puducherry based local cable channel Shakthi TV has reportedly played the entire movie. Actor Suriya also tweeted pictures of the movie being played.
Fight against Piracy!!Spread awareness that it's a crime!! Yet to release film #killpiracysavecinema #itsnowornever pic.twitter.com/igs2phGX03
— Suriya Sivakumar (@Suriya_offl) June 16, 2016
It is to be noted that the pirated version seems to have been leaked from the Censor Board as the screenshot shows the watermark as ‘’FOR CENSOR”
This is not new, especially in Puducherry. Sources in the cable TV industry in Puducherry say that Shakthi TV is known to download the latest movies and play it on air. The owner of the channel, a man named Shakthi, has been arrested earlier for similar crimes. But such screenings of the movie continue unabated.
Also read: Udta Punjab leaked from CBFC? It happened to a Malayalam film last year
In the small Union Territory of Puducherry alone, there are three Multiple System Operators, or MSOs, and at least 45 TV channels. Most of them are known to play pirated movies in blatant violation of the law.
Considering the controversy around Udta Punjab, this one will particularly earn the ire of the producers. Udta Punjab has had enough to go through, having emerged from the censor board's cuts and A certificate. The movie was finally allowed to be screened with just one cut. It was then leaked on torrent sites for all to download. But seems like this especially got into the wrong hands.