India’s official entry to the 90th Academy Awards, due to be held next year February, has become the latest high-profile victim of piracy. Newton, a black comedy starring Indian superstar Rajkummar Rao, has leaked online just 24 hours after its theatrical release, The Quint confirms.
Garnering much love and attention since its premiere at the Berlin film festival earlier this year, industry insiders were confident Newton would make a massive splash at the Indian box office. However, the movie’s potential to make a large amount of profit has changed dramatically since leaking online.
Shortly before the film’s release, trade analyst Girish Johan predicted confidently that the quirky comedy would earn upwards of Rs 1,5 crore during its opening day, equivalent to about $2,2 million. “The film is already getting excellent feedback and good word-of-mouth,” Girish is quoted as saying. “It is sure to do well in the coming days.”
Unfortunately, Newton fell well short of earning Rs 1,5 crore on its opening day on 22 September — instead settling for a Friday total of Rs 0,9 crore. Box office figures did increase over the weekend, only to start diminishing again on Monday as more and more people started discovering it online.
Commenting on the latest high-profile leak, Indian actor Ramman Handa said it’s sad that people still do piracy. “They are ignorant to the fact that a producer invests each and every penny to make a film. Such an unlawful act isn’t just ethically wrong, it also affects innumerable families who depend on the success of the film and the overall business it does.”
It’s still unclear what the source of the Newton leak is, but reports suggest it’s not a high definition copy of the film, calling it of “average quality”. Nevertheless, internet users flocked to torrent sites to get their hands on a copy of Rajkummar’s fourth film for this year alone. However, not Rajkummar nor any of the other actors or producers of Newton has said anything about the leak or the possible effect it will have on their movie’s success.
Bollywood star Shashank Vyas, who won many hearts for his performance in the Indian soapie Balika Vadhu, responded with harsh words for the pirates: “Filmmaking is a hard task, and people not buying tickets because they have an option to watch it online are actually doing injustice to the people who gave a portion of their life and energy in making it.”
Karan Oberoi, a well-known Indian television actor, model and singer, concurs. “It’s horrible! And a crime — a crime against all those people who put in their sweat, toil, hard work and unflinching passion for huge periods of time so that their stories can reach an audience in the right possible way. When wonderful films like Newton are pirated, it affects the entire initiative for making such compelling narratives.”
Newton tells the story of a rookie government clerk, played by Rajkummar, who is sent on election duty to an area controlled by insurgents in the conflict-ridden jungles of Chhattisgarh. Faced with the apathy of security forces and the looming fear of guerrilla attacks by communist rebels, Newton Kumar tries his best to conduct a free and fair vote despite the odds stacked heavily against him.
In their review, The Huffington Post wrote: “Newton is a touching, personal and very human film about the strength of one very resolute rookie election clerk to uphold the democratic process in a rebel-threatened area.” Praising Rajkummar’s performance, the outlet said he plays Newton “straightforward and nearly monotone and somehow manages to weave within that a romantic hero-like quality.”
The full extent of Newton’s piracy woes is yet to be determined. Ultimately, it’s just another film added to a very long list of high-profile cases of piracy, both in India and abroad. Commenting after the leak, Mitali Mayekar, an Indian television actress, told reporters that “piracy is not about the one who does it, but about the people who watch it.” But the opposite can also be argued.
If filmmakers can stop the original uploader of copyrighted material, then piracy can effectively be stopped at a grassroots level. Content security companies like Custos Media Technologies specialises in anti-piracy software developed to facilitate exactly that: to prevent original infringers from uploading content to piracy sites in the first place.
This is achieved by hiding a valuable Bitcoin bounty within copies of digital movie files, enticing a worldwide network of bounty hunters to hunt for and claim these bounties. Once claimed, the identity of the original infringer is revealed.
By revealing the identity of the uploader, it not only makes them liable in court but also discourages others from partaking in the same type of illegal activity. Custos turns the downloaders of pirated material against the uploaders, effectively attacking the very economy of piracy, hoping to eradicate it altogether.
If a potential uploader wants to share a piece of copyrighted content online, but can’t be one hundred percent certain it does not contain an identifiable Bitcoin bounty linking the copy back to them, why would they take the chance to upload it in the first place?
Custos provides content protection for video, audio, and documents. Content owners or distributors can visit custostech.com for more information.
