CD piracy row: Police collects data from Kerala Censor board

Kerala Police today collected some data from the Censor board office here, various studios connected with production, editing, processing and mixing in connection with the controversy over the issue of piracy of hit Malayalam film "Premam".
When contacted, CBFC chief Pahlaj Nihalani said that the matter would be enquired into, adding he would personally visit Thiruvanathapuram so that truth comes out.
The Anti Piracy cell of Kerala Police is probing a complaint by the film's producer Anwar Rasheed that the pirated version of "Premam" was uploaded in the cyber world.
Meanwhile, filmmaker Priyadarshan, who has been accused of leaking the movie, said, "The producers said the leak has been either from my studio or the other studio which was doing the dubbing.

"My studio does only dolby mixing. When it is given for mixing the watermark says 'mixing', when it is given for dubbing watermark says 'dubbing' but the print which has leaked says 'censor'. So the leaked print clearly shows the censor print so its not from our studio," he told PTI.
Priyadarshan said that he called up Nihalani and told him that "we all are supposed to give one print to the censor and in that there will be a watermark of censor. A studio can never make a censor print, so what is leaked out shows 'censor' and not from any of the studios the movie has been. Because we did only mixing, there are people who have done pre-production, people who have done graphics.

He added that Nihalani told him that he is coming after three days to enquire about the matter.

An Anti Piracy cell official told PTI that they had collected some data and in the days to come other studios connected with the film would be visited.
Among the studios from where the anti piracy cell collected data were Vismaya Entertainment studio here which belongs to Malayalam superstar Mohanlal where the post production work was completed, the official said.
Police has so far arrested 9 persons from various parts of the state in connection with the downloading of the pirated CD from different places. Most of them are youngsters and cases have been registered under the Copyright Act.

Meanwhile, Rasheed, told a television channel that he had resigned from FEFKA and Producers Association reportedly due to lack of support from them. He also refused to comment on the investigation.
According to the producer, the pirated version had the water mark of censor copy. The censor copies had been given to studios in Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai, where post production works of the film were held, he said.
In a Facebook post, Malayalam superstar Mammootty expressed solidarity with Rasheed.