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28 March 2024

SRK's 'RA.One' falls victim to piracy again

Published
By Bindu Suresh Rai

It seems “RA.One’s” superhero is fighting a losing battle to piracy, which has reared its ugly head yet again in the corridors of Bollywood and has superstar Shah Rukh Khan hopping mad.  

The “RA.One” actor is said to be gutted that the entire album of his sci-fi magnum opus was leaked online mere days prior to its official launch last evening. 

Naturally, the only damage control vehicle left for the actor and film producer is to take to micro blogging site Twitter and appeal to his millions of fans to obtain the album through legal means. 

Khan tweeted: “How sad it is that someone somewhere has no regard for our labour of love. Five years of work and they put it on the net so callously. Extremely sad…”  

Repeating the request was Vishal Dadlani, one half of the musical duo, Vishal-Shekhar, who have composed “RA.One’s” music, along with director Anubhav Sinha. 

Dadlani tweeted: “Show your support for “RA.One” and SRK. Don’t download illegally.” 

To this Sinha added: “Appeal. Everyone who has an illegal “RA.One” track, delete it.” 

This is not the first time “RA.One” has been made target by pirates. The film’s smash-hit track, “Chamak Chalo”, which has been crooned by international star Akon, was also leaked online months before the music’s official launch on September 12. 

The song has already become a record breaker across UAE Asian radio stations; with a second version of the track, featuring female vocals, having also found its way on air in this market prior to the album’s official launch. 

In fact, a report last year by PricewaterhouseCoopers’ research arm, titled “Economic Contribution of Indian Film and Television Industry” stated that the major amount of the Indian film industry’s woes in 2008 did not come from the global recession, but rather the revenue that was lost to piracy. 

The report stated that due to online piracy, the Indian film industry $959 million and about 571,000 jobs in 2009. 

“RA.One”, which is scheduled to release across UAE cinemas on October 25, will probably now see producers, Red Chillies Entertainment, guarding its print reels round-the-clock lest they too fall victim to an inside mole and make it to a website near you prior to making it to the marquee.