Anyone familiar with the internet would not require a tutorial on the myriad ways of downloading movies illegally.Rampant across the world, the effects of the piracy industry may have just sounded the death knell for “Premam”, a Malayalam blockbuster that is set to break all collection records.Expected to cross the Rs 30 crore mark in a month’s time, it suffered a major setback when leaked copies began going viral on the internet soon after the release and affected viewership in theatres. The situation has focused attention on the large losses incurred by movie industry at the hands of a largely, unknown movie piracy market.But what made the situation tricky was that the pirated version of “Premam” carried the watermark "Censor Copy”. Producers usually include the water mark “Censor Copy” on copies of the movie handed over to the Censor Board.Following this, the film’s producer Anwar Rasheed quit his membership from all Malayalam film associations accusing them of not supporting his demand for stringent action against piracy.The film’s lead actor Nivin Pauly has also come down heavily against piracy. "It is now doubtful if the film will complete 50 days in the theatres. Let this not happen to any other film," Pauly said a function.Meanwhile, director Priyadarshan in whose studio the movie was edited approached Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson Pahlaj Nihalani requesting a detailed probe, after he was accused of leaking the copy.Speaking to IANS over telephone from Chennai, Priyadarshan said that his name was being unnecessarily dragged into it by vested interests because the sound mixing of the film was done in his studio in Chennai.“I spoke to Nihalani and he has promised that he himself will be arriving in the capital city and will oversee the probe. The CBFC will have to do this because the leaked copies of last month’s released film carries the watermark of the CBFC,” Priyadarshan told IANS.Kerala’s Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala has intervened, instructing the Kerala Police Anti-Piracy Cell to get to the bottom of the matter. The police have since arrested seven people involved in circulating the leaked copy. The police are likely to question more people associated with the Malayalam film industry.In the meanwhile, superstar Mammootty announced his backing for the beleaguered producer Rasheed and his entire film team.“Stop Piracy! You don't want us to steal ideas, don't steal our films! Give every film it's due! I support Anwar and Team Premam. Good luck to Nivin and Alphonse and everyone from Premam”, he posted on his Facebook page on Saturday.Piracy has hit “Premam”, where it hurts the hardest: the movie was winning hearts not just in India, but also enamoured an international audience, which is a rare commercial success for a regional film. In Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, Papanasam, a remake of Mollywood blockbuster Drishyam, suffered its own setback in less than a week of its release. Pirated copies were found available on the second day after the film’s release.It was after this that the movie’s co-producer, Suresh Balaje reportedly lodged a complaint with the Chennai City police.The movie’s director Jeethu Joseph told PTI “The company has found that the links of the movie have been uploaded in some of the sites. But they can only remove those uploads but have no capacity to take action against those behind the act”.However, piracy is not just restricted to big movies like Premam and Papanasam. “Every film is bound to get pirated. You cannot stop it from happening. What is important is ensuring that it is controlled up till a certain point,” says an industry insider.The basic goal should be to ensure that no pirated copies are available for at least the first 72 hours after the film’s release, said the source.Pirated copies uploaded on to YouTube and other video-sharing websites are taken down by administrators after users or external agencies flag them. The Tamil movie industry loses an estimated 20-25 percent of box office revenues to online piracy.What’s the way out?Police have not made much headway in curbing piracy. However, one of the future options left for filmmakers appears to be availability of legal streaming sites catering to a select online audience, such as HeroTalkies.com and Tentkotta.com which allow Tamil film buffs the world over, an opportunity an opportunity to keep track of their favourite stars and directors. Similar to Netflix, these video-streaming sites which are yet to make a headway in India work in two ways. One, they allow users access to good video quality for a subscription; two, this ensures that film producers do not lose their audiences to online piracy. Pradeep VS, the CEO of HeroTalkies, says that piracy mainly occured due to lack of access to legal options for watching movies. "Piracy occurs due to the fact there is due to short supply and inability to take movies to the customers beyond traditional distribution models such as Cinema Halls, TV channels etc. Black market arises only when the product is good but there is no availability," he said.Within a matter of a few months, the site has a 5000+ strong customer base spread across 36 countries. Time and again, musicians and movie makers have reached out to the public asking them to help them curb piracy.AR Rahman once said:“I can’t talk about piracy and I don’t want to. It’s a moral thing within you, I can’t teach morals to you. It’s a conscience thing — if you want to support a musician, buy the music.”Last year, Tamil actor Vishal took matters into his own hands when he seized pirated videos of his recently released movie Poojai and Vijay's Kathi from bazaars and pirated DVD shops. In an interview, he reportedly said: “People don’t know just how much we’re losing, but I estimate that 40 per cent of a film’s revenue is lost due to piracy. If we let things be the way they are now, that number will rise to 60 per cent the next year, and soon producers won’t even be able to think of making movies.”