'Great Grand Masti' release advanced by a week after online leak

Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has swung into action after upcoming adult comedy 'Great Grand Masti' found its way online three weeks before its scheduled release

A still from Great Grand Masti

The Information & Broadcasting (I&B) Ministry has swung into action after upcoming adult comedy 'Great Grand Masti' found its way online three weeks before its scheduled release. Sources close to the film’s team inform us that a probe has been initiated and police in Delhi as well as a few other states are carrying out raids to get to the root of the piracy menace.

Also read: Now, censor copy of 'Great Grand Masti' gets leaked online

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A still from Great Grand Masti

It has also emerged that the multi-starrer has been available online for about a week. Vivek Oberoi, Riteish Deshmukh, Aftab Shivdasani and Urvashi Rautela form the main cast.

This is the second such incident of a film getting leaked online in the last 20 days — Shahid Kapoor-starrer Udta Punjab was leaked online on July 15, just 48 hours ahead of its date with the audience.

Says an insider, "The makers have registered a case with the Mumbai Police’s Cyber Cell and also brought it to the notice of the I&B Ministry since this is an issue that needs to be tackled at the top. The Ministry has responded favourably and is seriously investigating how the censor copies of films are making their way into movie downloading websites."

In a related development, the Bombay High Court has blocked 482 Uniform Resource Locator (URLs) and websites that had illegally uploaded Great Grand Masti until October. No cable owner or DTH service provider can broadcast the movie without permission from the makers.

Balaji Motion Pictures, co-producers of Great Grand Masti, had enlisted the help of two firms — Aiplex Software Private Limited and Markscan — to study the websites that pointed to the leaked movie copies. They also wrote to Google to remove it from search list.
—Inputs from Vinay Dalvi

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