Another victim! Now Rajinikanth's Kabali leaked online before release

Last month, all hell broke loose when Abhishek Chaubey’s Udta Punjab was leaked a couple of days before its release. There were speculations of a political conspiracy since the film makes a strong statement against drugs in Punjab. But the allegations were reduced to ashes when Indra Kumar’s Great Grand Masti too was leaked and that too a couple of weeks before release. This forced the makers to prepone the film’s release. Even Salman Khan's Sultan got leaked before release. 

And now, it seems this is slowly becoming a disturbing trend. The latest film to face the brunt of online leak before release is Rajinikanth’s hugely awaited, Kabali. The movie has been leaked online on Torrent sites three days before its release on 22 July 2016. 

As the leaked copies of these films have the words ‘Censor copy’ appearing on them, the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has come under the scanner. However, Pahlaj Nihalani, the CBFC Chief, has refuted such allegations. Reacting to the online leak of Kabali, he said, “They have not spared Rajinikanth either! Kabali was censored in Chennai, so it had nothing to do with our office in Mumbai. Earlier there was Salman Khan’s Sultan.” 

He also said that the collections of films with big stars won’t be affected with such leaks. “I don’t think collections of films with iconic stars will get affected by the leakage. It is the smaller films featuring non-A-listers which get hit by the leakage. Great Grand Masti is a case in point.”

According to latest reports, the makers of Kabali are trying to pull down download links of the film.