Piracy is one issue that has been the film industry in general, be it Hollywood, Bollywood or even Tollywood. Of late, actors like Manoj Bajpayee appearing on TV, voicing the industry’s stand against piracy in special PSAs (Public Service Announcements). Down south, actor Vishal has been doing a splendid job in curbing the incidents of piracy by the infamous TamilRockers group. However, when TamilRockers managed to leak a sizable chunk of incomplete (without CGI or grading) footage of Vijay Devarakonda’s Taxiwaala last year, people were shocked. One must note that this leak happened months before the film’s release in November. It was around the same time Vijay’s Geetha Govindam too had leaked.
However, at the same time, Vijay’s fans, whom he lovingly calls ‘Rowdies’ pledged full support to their star. When Vijay expressed his disappointment by the leak in a tweet, his fans pledged their support to the movie and assured that they would watch the movie only in theatres.
The group behind the leak, TamilRockers, has gained quite a notoriety among film circles in the past few years. Every other week, they appeared in the news after leaking a popular newly released movie online, from all prominent film industries. Despite having some arrests being made in the past, their activities continue as they keep changing their IP addresses and domain extensions to evade the authorities.
But team Taxiwaala stood up like a phoenix and continued the post-production work. While such a leak would have dishearted many. Team Taxiwaala struck upon a novel idea. In association with Chai Bisket (a popular Telugu YouTube channel), produces UV Creations uploaded a video titled ‘The Reality Behind Taxiwaala’ on their channel on the 8th of November 2018.
Featuring Vijay Devarakonda and the cute kids from the previously viral ‘The Dream Behind Taxiwaala’ video, the video was a cutting-edge answer to piracy, brimming with cuteness. In the video, when the kids arrive at Vijay’s house, they start judging the movie on the opinion of few friends who saw a few pirated scenes of the movie. As Vijay finds it difficult to explain the scenario in words, he chooses cooking as a medium to explain the struggles of making a film and why the films the kids’ friends saw was incomplete. How? While many would know the answer to this (the video had gone immensely viral), there’s no harm in checking out the full video again below to refresh your memory.
Watch The Reality Behind Taxiwaala
Fans loved the video and expressed their support for the film, criticizing its piracy. This showed how fan support and appreciate can only grower stronger against piracy with time.
Soon, the movie was ready to release on November 2018. However, Taxiwaala was again hit by piracy after the movie leaked online, days before its theatrical release. It was heartening to see our Rowdy star Vijay being targetted by pirates again and again. But he stood strong and made an appeal to his fans, asking to support the film in theatres. The result - the audience found themselves enjoying a unique thriller that delved into concepts previously unexplored in Telugu cinema.
Now, after a good run at the box office, fans can now treat themselves to Taxiwaala, in the comfort of their homes legally, as the movie is getting a digital release on ZEE5 from 16th February 2019. Now, you can binge on this out-of-the-box thriller starring Vijay Devarakonda, Priyanka Jawalkar and Malavika Nair whenever you want. It is pretty affordable doing so too. Subscribe to the ZEE5 Telugu pack with the code GET20 and you can get all the Telugu movies (including Vijay’s Taxiwaala and Geetha Govindam), TV shows, among other Telugu content for just Rs 39/month on ZEE5.
When watching movies legally can be this affordable, why go for piracy?
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