Police suspect that the reports about piracy of Pawan Kalyan's much-hyped 'Attarintiki Daaredi' could be a cheap publicity stunt enacted by people who invested a lot in the film.
Though police seized hundreds of CDs from video parlours and shops renting CDs at several places in Krishna district, they drew a blank. The police also seized hard discs from CD shops and took some of the owners of CD shops, known for circulation of pirated versions, into custody for grilling.
According to sources, the police found no evidence that the CDs containing pirated version of the film were circulated in the market. It all began with the protests by Pawan Kalyan's fans at Pedana town near Machilipatnam on Monday where they attacked a local CD rental shop and recovered bundles of CDs with stickers of 'Attarintiki Daaredi.' The police reached the spot and seized the CDs and computers from the shop.
Following directions from Krishna district SP J Prabhakar Rao, police conducted raids on several shops in Vijayawada and other towns and seized suspected pirated CDs to local offices of DSPs for verification.
Strangely, the police after going through most of the CDs recovered from the local shops, reportedly failed to find the entire content of the film. Sources said the alleged pirated CDs contained the trailers already released for promotion of the film and visuals of the audio release function. "It looks like that some of the local CD makers played the trick to cash in on the craze among the fans by packing the CDs just with promos and audio release function visuals."
Police suspect that the fans became irate only after not finding the entire film in the alleged pirated CDs and staged a protest. Meanwhile, police also suspect that the reports of the availability of pirated version could be a publicity trick played by investors including distributors.
While the clash of dates between 'Attarintiki Daredi' and Ramcharan's 'Evadu' delayed the release by a few weeks, subsequent agitations put the release on hold. Though the producer could have released the film soon after Ram Charan's 'Tufaan' bombed at the box office they choose to delay till Dasara to cash in on the festive mood.
Sources said the announcement of Jr NTR-starrer 'Ramayya Vastavayya' release just a day after 'Attarintiki Daredi' had developed second thoughts among the distributors and pressured the producer to advance the release date. "We can't rule out that it (controversy over pirated CDs) might have planned to advance the release date," observed a police official. Acting quickly on the piracy controversy, the producer had advanced the release date by a fortnight to September 27 from October 9.
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