Karthik Subbaraj to spread net for pirated CDs of his recent release Jigarthanda
Director Karthik Subbaraj (Photo)
Chennai:A lmost a month back, when Vishal took on the piracy racket, the entire film industry stood by him for his brave act. Now, director Karthik Subbaraj to spread net for pirated CDs of his recent release Jigarthanda, named after his native Madurai’s signature drink.
If Vishal happened to crack the whip against piracy in Karaikudi, with help from police, Karthik did it in Madurai with his own team of assistant directors and local youth.
The filmmaker was out on theatre visits during his two-day visit to the Temple City early this week with hero Siddharth and villain Bobby Simha. It was then that he got a tip-off about pirated DVDs of his movie being sold in shops across the city.
He swung in to action. Pressing youths from a local service organisation called ‘Thodarvom’ for which he is an advisor, and some of the film crew including his father Gajaraj in to service, the Jigarthanda director launched a hunt for the pirated copies.
The teams fanned out. “We were able to buy at least 20 DVDs of Jigarthanda from a few shops. One of the shopkeepers told us that he received a cardboard box full of pirated copies of several films including mine and of the 20 Jigarthanda copies, 16 sold out.”
Senthil, one of his assistant directors, caught two persons red-handed and took them to the police. Thodarvom founder P. Karthick said, “Kalaiyan who has acted in the movie was also part of the raid team. We could not lay our hands on the DVDs in one outlet as the seller identified him.”
Asked whether going on a raid on his own is again a publicity stunt, Karthik said, “When I hear the news that the pirated version of my film is doing rounds, I cannot keep quiet. I checked out and it turned true. We lodged a police complaint with enough evidence and the assistant commissioner (IS) promised to take action.”
His complaint did not fall on deaf ears though. The Madurai police raided CD shops and have seized 106 pirated DVDs of new films. Acting on the director’s complaint, they filed three cases and arrested two persons.
“I know this is not a permanent solution. But I am happy that our ‘hunt’ would stop the CD shops from selling pirated versions at least for a week and the collection would boost up in the meantime,” Karthik smiles.
( Source : dc )
Next Story
