The night before a movie’s release should be all about celebration for the makers and the team. But Sikandar’s leading man Salman Khan and producer Sajid Nadiadwala spent Saturday night and the early hours of March 30 scrambling to contain an online leak of their film. Hours before AR Murugadoss’ directorial venture hit the theatres on March 30 morning, the film’s high-definition (HD) version made its way to X.
To combat the leak, Nadiadwala’s production house, Khan’s fan clubs and Mumbai Police’s cyber department worked together and pulled down over 3000 links. (From left, clockwise) Game Changer and Indian 2 were among the recent releases to fall prey to piracy. Netflix had advanced Mimi’s (2021) release by four days, after it leaked online Ravi Desai, who heads the Salman Khan Fan Club on X, reveals that a sign was there in the days leading up to the release.
“On March 26, a handle had posted an unseen image from the film and claimed that they will release the film’s prints. Later, that account vanished. On Saturday at 11.
30 pm, a print was released from another X handle. It was first available on HDM [a website for torrent downloads], and from there, it came to X. By 12 am, it was everywhere,” he recalls.
Sajid NadiadwalaDesai and many other fans promptly alerted Salman Khan Films (SKF) at midnight about the development. In the next half-an-hour, SKF, Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment, and the anti-piracy agency, FX Securities, sprung into action. Des.