Venkatesh Kumar's independent art film, 'Lightman,' which was supposed to release on the 10th of February couldn't hit the screens as planned due to various reasons. But the film was uploaded in piracy websites the day before the film's release. The film's lead actor Karthik Nagarajan, who felt bad about it, shared his unhappiness on Facebook a few days ago.
He said, "Our film #Lightman was scheduled to release on 10th Feb 2017, and the film was uploaded by #Tamilrockers even before it's release on 9th Feb 2017. We, as a team, have invested our time, effort and money in making this movie with the only motive to showcase our talent. But this act of some socially irresponsible people has buried our dreams now.
What do they gain by doing this? Due to this many reviewers didn't review our movie. Many newspapers did not publish any article about our movie. Press people have already watched the movie in its press show and said they will support us to their best to promote our movie to reach all audience. Now, as the movie is already available in all pirated sites they don't see purpose in talking about it.
The amount of effort invested in this movie was high and we are left deserted now. A group of unknown people causing trouble to the filmmakers are hurting us badly. Our career is dependent on how the film is celebrated by the audience and press.
I feel pained now as my first movie as lead actor is affected by piracy that too even before it's release. I'm trying to find a place infilm industry from 2005 and it's more than a decade's effort and wait that has been trashed now. I hope the future is bright and people stop supporting piracy. It truly affects one's career."
This post from him has earned support from various corners including leading actors like Prakash Raj and Aishwarya Rajesh. Prakash Raj posted, "Will the hackers and those who see and encourage such unfair sites answer this cry of pain ...🙏🙏. Very sad.".
Aishwarya Rajesh took to Twitter and posted, "Guys pls know how hard it is to make a movie .. not a joke stop this bl**dy piracy..tak a min to read this post .. truly hurts"
Let us all join hands together and save our industry from piracy.
*social media posts are not spell-checked