First shoot, then troubleshoot

Ram Charan in ‘Peddi’. Pics/Instagram

What began as a regular shoot day for Ram Charan and the team of Peddi spiralled into a hectic night of damage control. Nearly 53 seconds of footage from a special dance number of Peddi made its way online in the late hours of April 27. What was shocking was that the song shoot, featuring the South star and Shruti Haasan, had begun only earlier that day on a specially erected set in Janwada near Hyderabad.

Sources told mid-day that director Buchi Babu Sana and the team were stunned when they saw the clip being circulated across fan pages, Telegram groups, and X. A source said, "Usually, makers are worried about leaks during post-production, but here the footage seems to have gone out straight from the set. The unit was caught off guard."

Murmurs are that the leak may have originated from either an on-set monitor recording or an internally circulated preview cut. The source added, "It was not a polished teaser. It looked like someone recorded the monitor playback on the phone."

Since then, the makers have roped in anti-piracy experts, who are trying to contain the spread. An insider said, "More than 400 links across platforms have been removed. The legal and digital teams have been working continuously."

Double blow

Another big-ticket South venture was hit by an online leak. On April 28, an action sequence of Nani's upcoming film ‘The Paradise' surfaced on social media