08 February,2017 08:02 AM IST | | Vijay Kumar Yadav
In a new turn to the controversy surrounding the leak of the film ‘Force 2’, a day before it was to hit the screens on November 18, 2016, the Cyber police station officers have arrested a father-son duo, who are the owner and manager of Prakash Cinema in Dabara area of Gwalior district, Madhya Pradesh
A still from the film Force 2
In a new turn to the controversy surrounding the leak of the film 'Force 2', a day before it was to hit the screens on November 18, 2016, the Cyber police station officers have arrested a father-son duo, who are the owner and manager of Prakash Cinema in Dabara area of Gwalior district, Madhya Pradesh. The two were taken into custody after the cops found that the copy of the film given to the theatre by K Sera Sera Digital Cinema Limited, has the same static watermark, which was there on the version leaked and pirated online.
What's the connection?
Renowned production banner Viacom 18 had earlier lodged a complaint against movie distributor K Sera Sera for allegedly leaking the film. However, the police are yet to find out whether the arrested duo, identified as Pramod Shivhare (49) and his son Arjun Shivhare (25), has any connection with the distribution company.
According to police, after Viacom 18 had found that the movie was available for download on 2,027 active Internet links a day before its release, it had lodged an FIR in the matter. Following this, cops had found out that the version of the film that was leaked had the watermark given by Viacom 18 to the film distributor.
Watermark reveals all
Further investigation revealed that before distributing copies of the film among movie halls, K Sera Sera had given a different static watermark. Based on this, they zeroed in on four movie halls in Madhya Pradesh, which had the same mark. However, police are also trying to find out whether other people were involved in the case, which has caused huge loss to the film's producers.
K Sera Sera speaks
Earlier a spokesperson for K Sera Sera Digital Cinema Limited had said, "On checking the pirated DVDs that were distributed in the market, we had found the static watermark on them. Prakash Cinema was given copies of the film with the same watermark. Post this we started a detailed investigation into the matter. It is evident that the film was recorded with the help of a camera in the same theatre. Hence we filed a complaint against the theatre's owner at Amboli police station in Mumbai."
