After the arrest of two drivers of private buses for screening pirated versions of newly-released Tamil movies, the Nadigar Sangam (South Indian Artistes' Association) has sent letters to all private bus operators in the city, alerting them to desist from the illegal practice or face police action.
With several complaints from actors on the issue, the city police are also preparing to crack down on operators and their staff who screen films on pirated CDs.
On May 13, on a complaint by South Indian Artistes' Association general secretary Vishal, police arrested a bus driver with a private operator for illegally screening new Tamil film `Theri', starring actor Vijay, for passengers on a vehicle travelling from Bengaluru to Chennai. A passenger on the bus alerted the actor that the driver was playing the film on the coach.
Vishal asked the passenger who made the complaint to shoot the screening of the film on his cellphone as proof.He then called the police video piracy wing and officers stopped the bus near Maduravoyal and arrested the driver.
A week later, police arrested another driver of a private bus for screening a pirated copy of Suriya-starrer `24'.Members of Nadigar Sangam received a tip-off about the driver playing a film on a bus heading from Dindigul to Chennai and contacted the city police. Policemen arrested the driver when the bus arrived in Chennai.