Riteish Deshmukh on piracy: We will be extremely careful with Banjo

It is believed that the box-office performance of Indra Kumar’s Great Grand Masti, which released last month, was hit by its online leak. The situation for the adult comedy was worse than for Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab, because the former was leaked much before its theatrical release. In fact, the theatrical release had to be advanced by a week to try and counter the leak of the film.

Riteish Deshmukh, who played one of the three main characters in the film, believes that the leak affected the film’s box-office performance. He was speaking at the trailer launch of his upcoming film, Banjo. 

"We have now come to know that the film was leaked around a month and a half before release," he said. "That’s really unfortunate. Every film goes through various stages from where piracy can happen, unfortunately. But if a film is leaked four weeks before release, the loss is greater and this is a personal experience.”

Deshmukh said the filmmakers will now be taking precautionary measures with Banjo. “Everyone takes enough care and we will this time be extremely careful and vigilant.”