Lyca Productions rubbishes media reports that claim it advocated, propagated online piracy

One of the biggest firms producing films in the Tamil film industry, Lyca Productions, has refuted piracy allegations levelled against it by a Tamil website.

The website, in a scathing report, had alleged that the production house had struck a deal with actor Vishal Krishna, who is the president of the Tamil Film Producers Council (TFPC) and the secretary of the South Indian Artistes Association (better known as the Nadigar Sangam), to buy and produce his films after he had discovered the group's alleged role in film piracy.

It may be recalled that Lyca Productions, apart from buying Vishal's just released Irumbu Thirai (2018), which was produced by his firm Vishal Film Factory, will also be producing his upcoming film, Sanda Kozhi 2.

The report has triggered a storm here in the Tamil film industry, with a section of the producers demanding that Vishal be removed from his post as TFPC president.

Under these circumstances, Lyca Productions has issued a statement, clarifying that the allegations are baseless and have been levelled with an intention to defame the group.

In its statement issued today, Lyca Productions said, "A few days back, savukkuonline.com carried an article accusing Lyca Productions of advocating and propagating online piracy. Lyca Productions is a leading Indian film production and distribution company. The domain names under which the so-called piracy activities were carried out are lycamovie.com and lycamovies.com.

"Lycamovie.com was created on 21 May 2014 under the admin name Tamil Tamilan. On 22 May 2014, the website was redirected to a Tamilgun.com, a popular online piracy site. On 2 June 2014, Lycamovies.com was created under the same admin name, Tamil Tamilan. Subsequently, Lycamovies.com, too, was redirected to Lycamovie.com. Activities on both Lycamovies.com and Lycamovie.com were shut by 29 June 2014. At this point, we would like to clearly state that neither Lyca Group nor Lyca Productions was in anyway associated with either of the domain names."

"Following this, the domain name, lycamovie.com was not renewed by the previous admin Tamil Tamilan and it became free. Lyca Group undertook the domain name Lycamovie.com on 5 July 2017. Lyca Group could not acquire the domain name Lycamovies.com as the domain name was renewed. It is common corporate practice to acquire domain names with prefixes and suffixes as a company expands."

"Presently, lycamovie.com is redirected to lycaproductions.in, Lyca Productions' official website. We would like to reiterate that Lyca Productions was in no way associated with lycamovie.com prior to 5 July 2017. Also, post 5 July 2017, there has been no online piracy activities on lycamovie.com. Therefore, the allegations against Lyca Productions are baseless and intentional to defame the company name."

"As an organisation, Lyca Group has strongly advocated anti-piracy norms and has taken extensive steps to curb piracy for both our films and other films. If there is any substantiating evidence against us, we are willing to clarify it in any forum."

"It is disappointing that a verified online site like savukkuonline.com can carry such a defamatory article without clarifying with us. That goes completely against journalistic integrity. It is further disappointing when other media houses carry this without checking with us or clarifying the same. We have decided to take stringent action against the media houses and personalities who have spoken baselessly against Lyca Group."

"We at Lyca Productions believe in strong content creation and have always supported the film industry at every juncture. We request everyone not to believe baseless allegations and to clarify anything with us directly."