A film meant for the big screen ended up reaching millions through the wrong screens instead. As the Madras High Court denies bail to two accused, the piracy trail is only getting deeper.
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The ‘Jana Nayagan’ piracy case just took a serious turn. Chennai police revealed in Madras High Court that around 1.2 crore people illegally watched Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Joseph Vijay’s film after it leaked online, and this happened even before the movie received official certification.
The submission came during a hearing for bail petitions filed by two of the 21 people accused in the case. According to a report by The Hindu, the numbers shared by police painted a picture of just how far the leak had spread before authorities could contain it.
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The film leaked on April 9. At that point, it had not even cleared certification from the Central Board of Film Certification, commonly known as CBFC. Despite that, millions of people found ways to watch it anyway.
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Justice C Kumarappan heard the bail pleas of two specific accused in the case, the fourth accused S Rajini and the eleventh accused Jayaprakash. After looking closely at the seriousness of the allegations, particularly concerns around evidence tampering during the ongoing investigation, the judge refused to grant them bail.
Both petitions were dismissed by the court.
The prosecution laid out its version of events during the hearing. According to their account, the main accused is a freelance film editor. He is accused of stealing the film’s footage directly from an edit suite using a hard drive.
Investigators claim he did not act alone. Two of his brothers allegedly helped him piece together the disjointed clips into a complete, watchable version of the film. Once assembled, the footage was reportedly uploaded to Google Drive.
From there, prosecutors say the pirated copy spread fast. It was allegedly circulated to well known piracy websites, including Tamil Rockers. That distribution allowed millions of viewers to watch the film well before its official theatrical release.
The production company behind the film, KVN Productions, did not sit back while this was happening. They approached the Madras High Court and secured an interim injunction. That order directed internet service providers to block unauthorised access to the leaked film.
Even with that legal action in place, the leak had already spread too widely by the time enforcement caught up. Authorities estimate that close to 1.2 crore people had already streamed the pirated version before it was finally taken down.
The prosecution gave the court several reasons to keep the two accused in custody. For one, two other people connected to the case are reportedly still absconding. Investigators argue that a custodial investigation is necessary to properly trace the financial trail behind the entire piracy operation.
There are also concerns about what could happen if the accused are released. Prosecutors told the court that there is a real risk of evidence being tampered with, or witnesses being influenced, if bail is granted at this stage.
Adding to that, only a preliminary chargesheet has been filed in the case so far. The investigation is still ongoing, and a final chargesheet has yet to be submitted to the court.
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