In a blatant violation of the anti-piracy law, parts of Taxiwala, actor Vijay Deverakonda’s upcoming Telugu movie, were leaked in August along with his last box office hit Geetha Govindam. Speaking at the pre-release event of Taxiwala on Monday, Vijay Deverakonda, in an emotional speech, asked all viewers to watch the movie in the theatre albeit a good or a bad one.
“Whatever people say, Taxiwala is a good movie. It may not break records, but I can guarantee that it is an entertainer. Behind the entertainment medium, the efforts of a lot of people go in. So please go to the theatres and watch the movie,” Vijay appealed to the audience.
“We decided to not talk much about it because the more we speak about online piracy, the more people search and find the illicit links,” he added.
Speaking about piracy, the film’s cinematographer Sujith Sarang also put up a post on Facebook asking everyone to watch the movie on the big screen. In the pictures he posted, Sujith is seen wearing a collar belt and he says that this is how he worked during the entire shoot of the movie, carrying around the camera that weighed almost around 20 kg.
“My doctor advised me to change my profession, I was bed-ridden for few months. But there is a saying! Rise from the ashes, never give up, and I never gave up,” Sujith wrote in the post.
Recently, Vijay released a video in which he is seen telling a group of kids how you shouldn’t value a movie based on a few pirated scenes which have been leaked. In the three and a half minute long video, he compares a pirated film to that of a bowl of uncooked pasta. When the kids tell him that Taxiwala is not a well-made movie, he asks them to eat a bowl of uncooked pasta. When the kid says that it is not good, he adds all ingredients to it and the kids are seen relishing the final product.
Taxiwala, written and directed by Rahul Sankrityan, is bankrolled by Allu Aravind under the banner Geetha Arts. The film has music by Jakes Bejoy. It stars Vijay Deverakonda as the hero with Priyanka Jawalkar and Malavika Nair as the female leads. With Vijay Devarakonda’s last release NOTA turning out to be a dud at the box office, his fans are waiting eagerly for Taxiwala.