Vishal currently cresting the box office with his Tamil -Telugu digital-crime thriller IrumbhaiThirai / Abhimanyudu proved a real-life hero for Rajinikanth when on Wednesday evening, Vishal averted a major digital crime just in time by getting an overzealous Rajini fan arrested in Singapore as he was caught pirating the new Rajini starrer Kaala.
Vishal, who has lately become a prominent voice of the Tamil film industry and who heads Tamil film industry's Tamil Nadu Films Producers' Council (TFPC) says, "It could have been a major crisis. Kaala is a big film for us. Rajini Sir is coming back after two years. To our horror we got to know through our sources in Singapore that a man in the Cathay multiplex was live-streaming Kaala on Facebook."
Vishal and his team swung into action immediately. “We got the man arrested in Singapore after he had streamed 40 minutes of Kaala on Facebook. The important thing was to take action without delay. That we managed to do.”
It wasn’t an easy job. “We had to push really hard for his arrest as this was a crime committed outside India. But now that it’s done, the arrest sends out the right signal to all potential piracy offenders who may not even be aware that they are guilty. Lots of people think recording scenes and songs on their phone is okay.
“But it is not okay. It is a serious crime. We want the potential offenders to know we have zero tolerance for piracy in any form. If we want to save the film industry we need to stop talking and start acting.”
