This seems to be the latest method of extorting money from film producers, threaten to circulate a pirated copy of the movie if their demands are not met.
The influence of the underworld over the film industry has diminished a lot in recent years, with very few (rare) cases of extortion (from producers) reported nowadays.
Nevertheless, criminals are always looking for different ways to make money from the producers, especially when they are raking in the moolah from a movie like “Baahubali 2: The Conclusion” (likely to collect around Rs. 1500 crores).
That’s what a group of gangsters did to the producers of Baahubali 2 (Karan Johar and others).
The gang, known for making pirated copies of Bollywood films, demanded Rs 15 lakh from the makers by threatening to circulate a pirated copy of Baahubali 2 if there demand wasn’t met.
The good news however is that the gang (includes a theatre owner from Bihar) has been arrested.
While piracy is a big headache for film producers, criminals are probably thinking its easier to make money by black-mailing the producers.
And they probably got the idea from the recent ransomware attack (named WannaCry). The hackers reportedly stole a copy of Disney’s Johnny Depp starrer ‘Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales’ and are now threatening the production house to pay a huge ransom in bitcoins, else they will leak the movie.
I guess, our Police force will now have to buckle up to deal with such situations.
