Filmmaker Vikram Bhatt has denied reports of the online leak of his upcoming film Raaz Reboot.
On Tuesday evening it was reported that the fourth installment of the Raaz franchise, directed by Bhatt, has been leaked. The news of its leak went viral online and its hero Emraan Hashmi expressed his grief and urged his fans to avoid watching the leaked version.
#RaazReboot is to be watched in the theatres. Stay away from piracy please!
— emraan hashmi (@emraanhashmi) September 13, 2016
— emraan hashmi (@emraanhashmi) September 13, 2016
When asked about the film’s leak, Bhatt told IANS “It’s not really leaked. We put in a bogus file because we know what’s been happening for the past few films, and we have understood that.” The film maker said that within 10-15 minutes, the link went viral and over 5000 downloads of the bogus file were made. “5,000 downloads of a film which was not even Raaz Reboot. So this is how Torrents is destroying the business. Now this (planting a bogus file) is our way of warning those people to stay away from our content. So, no, the film has not leaked,” he said.
A releived Emraan Hashmi then tweeted
Was just informed that #RaazReboot hasn’t leaked online! Irrespective, piracy is a major prob that needs to be fixed. See u in theatres! ?
— emraan hashmi (@emraanhashmi) September 14, 2016
Leaks of films before release have been more frequent than before with films like Udta Punjab, Grand Masti, Dishoom being victims of leaks. Udta Punjab and Great Grand Masti‘s leaked copies were in fact the copies given to the CBFC for certification. Vikram Bhatt dismissed the notion that the CBFC released the copies as the films had issues when it came to certification. “I don’t think that the censor board is leaking copies. I know I have an ongoing fight with the censor board, but that doesn’t mean that I am going to stand up and say that ‘Censor Board leaked the copy’. That’s not true.” he said.
Raaz Reboot features Kriti Kharbanda and Gaurav Arora apart from Emraan Hashmi. The film releases on Friday.
