CHENNAI: Arun Pandian is flummoxed. The actor-turned-producer had the shock of his life a couple of days ago when he found a perfectly mastered, 520 kbps versions of his unreleased film Savale Samali’s songs online. The audio was kept under lock and key, he said.
“There were only two copies -- one with the music director Thaman and the other was a digitally protected copy that I listened to once, and then locked it in my office. We sat on it because we wanted to release the audio a little before May 1,” he told Express.
Now that the songs are being posted on song-sharing platforms, he has asked his team to put together an audio launch in the “next 3-4 days and try to make as much revenue as possible,” from audio sales.
The latest in a series of high-profile leaks of Tamil film audio on the Internet, it has pushed Pandian to put pressure on the Commissioner of Police to find the culprits immediately. They submitted a complaint on Monday, which has been forwarded to the Cyber Crime cell. “All athe people involved with the production will be questioned and we will try to find out how the leak happened. Stopping it’s spread online may not be feasible,” said a police official.
As a complaint, having your film’s songs leaked online isn’t exactly new. Back in 2007, three songs from Rajinikanth’s Sivaji were leaked online from composer A R Rahman’s studio. All the songs of Venkat Prabhu’s Biriyani (2013) and Simbu’s long-pending Vaalu also found their way online -- much to the consternation of their respective makers.
An MLA himself, Pandian, who has invested over `1.5 crore in the music (with videos), had managed to rope in record label Think Music to handle the music release. “Now that the music is out there, the revenue from music sales will go down. These songs were very good which is why such a large label came in, but now who will buy it legally?” he asked. When leaks occur, producers quickly release the audio on a radio station or flood the market with audio CDs as quickly as possible.
Not only does this put a dent in the already dwindling revenue from audio sales, it also kills the film’s release schedule. “The greatest loss is for the producer, because they time the audio launch a month before the film’s release so that the buzz from the audio will create an anticipation for the movie. This is important for the success for any film and this sort of piracy really ruins all that,” said a distraught Seenu Ramasamy, the national award winning director, who experienced the same ordeal in December.
All the songs from his film with Vijay Sethupathi Idam Porul Eval were posted online and went viral. “As creators of cinema, it is also hurtful that our work is judged without reaching it’s full potential. The version of my film’s audio that was leaked was a rough scratch that wasn’t the final version, but after listening to it, someone from abroad called lyricist Vairamuthu and said that it wasn’t “good” at all. This really hurt all of us, because we felt that the audio would have had a massive impact had it been mastered well and taken to the masses,” he added.
Customary complaints to the police have not yielded much. “Not a single culprit has been identified. I hope that there will be greater protection and better laws for people in the film industry. But till that happens, I will put 20 locks on my editing room and studio to ensure at least my film stays safe,” said Ramasamy, who is eyeing a May 1 release for his film.
As almost all such leaks originate from within, South Indian Film Artistes Association Chief Sarath Kumar indicated that there needed to be more restraint. “We have to be more careful with our films and the people whom we trust, should not betray us. All of us must unite to stop piracy,” said the actor-politician whose film Jaggubhai was leaked in entirety online, well before it’s release.
