Second time in a row, the highly-anticipated movie of Thalaiva Rajinikanth has been targeted by online miscreants. Yes, after Kaala, Rajini Sir’s ambitious project 2.0 has become a victim of piracy. The teaser video of sci-fi movie also starring Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar in a villainous role leaked on the internet and is rampantly downloaded by crazy fans. 2.0, also called Enthiran 2.0 is the sequel of Rajinikanth’s 2010 blockbuster Enthiran (dubbed as Robot for Hindi release) has been one of the most awaited films of the year. But with piracy attacking the big project by director S. Shankar, it will definitely hamper plans of makers.

Ramesh Bala, Indian Movie Industry Tracker and Film Business Analyst took to Twitter to announce the shocking details of 2.0 teaser getting leaked online. He wrote, “Shocking to know #2point0Teaser is leaked on-line.. Hope the team takes strict action on the culprits..Usually, the team releases the official teaser immediately to contain the damage..Not sure, if the teaser is fully ready now or if the timing is right to release it now.. (sic).” In his next tweet, Bala mentioned the teaser video to be a WIP (Work In Progress) version.

Usually, when a teaser of movie or song gets leaked, producers try and release it officially to do damage control. But in the case of 2.0, it looks highly unlikely because of the VFX and other technicalities that are yet to be completed. According to alert Twitterati, the teaser trailer of 2.0 that has been leaked is of a minute-and-a-half and but, obviously has gone viral in a matter of few hours of its upload.

Online piracy has badly affected the plans and business of Indian cinema industry – be it Bollywood or South movies. The worst thing about the entire episode is that there is no stringent action taken against such miscreants with film producers losing a mammoth amount of money because of such piracy attack. While it has become a norm for films to make its way to the social media on the same day of its release, but the going gets tough when parts of movies are leaked days before the official date of release.

Like Bala in his following tweet writes, “#2Point0PrideOfIndianCinema, A leak of a WIP (Work In Progress) Version will not affect the #YouTube records that will come once the official version is released..Neither the Box office records..(sic)." Such leak incidents will have no effect on Thalaiva when he releases the teaser, trailer and film. It is bound to be a huge blockbuster and this small obstacle will have no effect on Rajini Sir’s film in the long run.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 04, 2018 12:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).