The TFPC's legal battle against online piracy of Tamil cinema, especially pertaining to TamilRockers and Tamildbox has begun. Today, December 11, the council headed by actor Vishal announced on Twitter:
"First FIR against Tamilrockers and Tamildbox - IPREC (Intellectual Property Rights Enforcement Cell) initiated action on complaint filed by Tamil Film Producer Council. Further will be escalated to central government and to Embassies . #killpiracy #tamilrockersjail #tfpc"
TamilRockers and websites of such nature are known to notoriously leak new releases online within very short times of their theatre entry.
The Annual General Body meeting of the Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council was conducted on December 10. The meeting led to a lot of problems with Vishal reported being not on good terms with the council members.
After the meeting, Cheran addressed the press saying, “This issue is something to be concerned with the Producers Council. Unlike Vishal, I don’t find the need to share anything with the media. Secondly, Vishal walked-out of the meeting without paying heed to the members who voted for him. I thought he was the ‘Puratchi Thalapathy,’ but I saw him running away because he was afraid. I do not want to speak anything else about him.”
This statement of Cheran was vehemently opposed by Vishal’s team who said that everything in the meeting happened as per law and there was no violation.