On Monday, the Hyderabad Cyber Crime Police announced the bust of a humongous movie piracy racket, possibly the biggest one to ruin the financial back of the Telugu film industry. As per the police, five individuals who are behind pirating some of the biggest movies in recent times have been caught and arrested. They are responsible for bringing out, distributing and monetising pirated versions of movies like Hari Hara Veera Mallu and Game Changer.
While the police have claimed losses for Tollywood to the tune of Rs 3,700 Cr (cumulative figure from several years) because of piracy, the mode of operation resorted to by them is hi-tech. They hacked studio servers and did theatre cam-cording.
The individuals involved in this piracy entirely relied on cryptocurrencies for financial transactions. An accused named Ashwani Kumar earned $800 for each leaked HD film. This payment was sent in Bitcoin directly from the operators of piracy websites or from promoters of betting applications. The digital currency was then funneled into various digital wallets. To convert their illicit gains into usable currency, the conspirators utilized middlemen who facilitated the exchange of the crypto into Indian currency. One mastermind earned Rs 2 Cr by uploading an estimated 500 films since 2020.
