There continues to be so much noise surrounding Monkey Man. If you haven’t been udpated, the release of the Hollywood film, Monkey Man has been a talking point for almost a month now with several controversies, delays and even wondering seeping in.
From having an April 19 date announced for India release to that not happening, an the CBFC still not having seen the film and much more – it is all a huge ruckus. To add to this, the beast of piracy has taken over, and situation has got murkier. After a release on April 5 in several markets, the film was available on rent on Amazon Prime Video in the International markets. The became fodder for the ones who practice piracy as a high quality print was now available to be illegally be presented on several google drive, telegram and other torrent links. The film’s distributors – Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures have sent notices and tried their best to pull all the links down but the nature of this is such that it cannot be fully removed.
The biggest shock, however, was that a prominent critic went on to openly talk about how he saw the film – not in theaters, not on any streaming platform but on a ‘secret third place.’ A few websites then collated the tweets of people, who saw the film on pirated websites. A lot of accounts with a huge number of followers even went on to recommend watching the film ‘you know where’ because the film won’t have a chance to release in India.
To this, film exhibitor and distributor talked with Bollywood Hungama and was fuming as he said he wasn’t certain about the fairness of the situation. However, he emphasized that according to Indian laws, it constituted a criminal offense. He added that if the film had been accessed through a pirated platform, it should be brought to the attention of the authorities and law enforcement agencies. He stressed the importance of enforcing the charges and penalties applicable to piracy. He pointed out the significant losses in terms of money and employment that the industry suffers due to piracy. He concluded that individuals within the entertainment or media ecosystem who engage in piracy and promote it could be likened to parasites that should be eliminated.