Notorious piracy group, Tamil Rockers, is back in the news again as it has stated that it would release a High Definition print of Vijay-starrer Sarkar to their portal on Tuesday. Taking to Twitter, a handle that claimed to be the official page of Tamil Rockers said, "Sarkar HD print coming from today." The site has released Rajinikanth's Kaala and Vishal's Sandakozhi 2 recently.
The big budget film is believed to be getting a grand opening in as many as 80 countries and around 1,200 screens worldwide. According to trade sources, among Vijay’s releases, Sarkar has done massive pre-release business. The film is expected to gross a whopping Rs 140 crore from Tamil Nadu alone.
Meanwhile, a press release issued by the Tamil Film Producer's Council (TFPC) on Monday reminded its members that, according to an October 23 meeting of the body, it was the duty of the theatre owners to ensure that nobody records the film on any devices.
"Further, we had decided that all theatres must have CCTV cameras. We wish to remind about this through this letter," said the TFPC.
Taking note of the threat issued by Tamil Rockers, the TFPC said, "We should collectively work together for this and ensure that the thief Tamil Rockers does not win. We should appoint persons to every theatre to closely monitor. If someone is seen recording the film, we request that they should be immediately reported to the police."
The film stars Vijay as a person who returns from the US and vows to bring about change in society. Veteran actor Radha Ravi is tipped to be playing the antagonist in the film. Keerthy Suresh has rejoined hands with Vijay after last year’s Bairavaa. The film also stars Prem Kumar, Varalaxmi Sarath Kumar and Yogi Babu in crucial roles.
The film has also been involved in a plagiarism row with writer and assistant director Varun Rajendran accusing director AR Murugadoss of plagiarism.
Varun filed a complaint first with the South Indian Film Writers Association, and then later filed a petition with the Madras High Court requesting for a ban on the film’s release until he’s given his due credits along with a remuneration of Rs 30 lakh for his story. However, the two parties later settled with Murugadoss agreeing to 'thank' Varun Rajendran in the credits.
Tamil Rockers has been a favorite online destination for several lakh people to stream pirated South Indian movies. The admins of this site have remained anonymous. The torrent site has run into controversies many times by streaming movies live including big films like Baahubali, Premam and others.
The website joined the police's wanted list after it sold the censor copy of Malayalam blockbuster Premam online.