Hyderabad Police recently apprehended the admin of the piracy website iBomma, launching a major crackdown on illegal film peddlers. Following the arrest, Megastar Chiranjeevi, along with other members of the Telugu film industry, lauded the police department and spoke strongly against the act of piracy.
Chiranjeevi cracks down on film piracy
Speaking to the media, Chiranjeevi said, “Piracy has been robbing the industry of huge revenues. Immadhi Ravi (iBomma founder) openly challenged the police to arrest him; that level of arrogance was too much. Finally, he is behind bars. My thanks to the Commissioner and his team for this achievement.”
The veteran star added, “Several big films such as Game Changer, Thandel, Kingdom, They Call Him OG, and more have suffered heavy losses because of piracy. I even heard that a 22-year-old from Bihar was earning huge money through piracy; it’s unbearable.”
Nagarjuna Akkineni and SS Rajamouli react to film piracy
Nagarjuna Akkineni, who was also present at the media address, stated that industry members, along with him, had met IPS officer CV Anand two months earlier to discuss the issue. He pointed out that piracy is affecting not only the Telugu states but also the Hindi, Tamil, and several other film industries.
According to him, the losses are far greater than Rs. 20 crore, as the actual earnings involved run into thousands of crores.
The Shiva actor expressed his gratitude to the Telangana and Hyderabad Police for their outstanding work. He further cautioned that websites offering free movie streaming are traps, revealing that six months earlier, a member of his own family had fallen victim to a digital arrest.
Nagarjuna emphasized that when users open such websites, assuming they are watching movies for free, all their personal details are accessed by cybercriminals.
SS Rajamouli also expressed his appreciation for the Hyderabad and Telangana Police Department. He remarked that the situation resembled a typical film sequence where a villain challenges the hero to catch him. He noted that the Telangana Police had managed to apprehend the culprit within two months, proving their strength.
The filmmaker explained that running such domains is expensive and that, while operators leak films and cause financial losses to the industry, their primary source of revenue comes from the audience. He stressed that viewers are unknowingly funding these operations, as the operators profit by selling users’ important data.
Finally, the Varanasi director emphasized that the ultimate choice lies with the viewers, who can decide whether to watch films legally by subscribing to OTT platforms or take the illegitimate route.
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