FRIDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2019
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Steamy scenes of web show make way to porn sites The app owners, on their part, claim helplessness over the situation
IANS, NEW DELHI
A
ctors and makers of a web show titled D-Code are crying foul over what they claim is illegal practice on part of the on-demand video-streaming platform, ULLU app. According to the cast and crew, certain bold sequences filmed for the show have mushroomed on various porn sites. The app owners, on their part, claim helplessness over the situation, saying all such sequences have been filched by cyber pirates without their knowledge, the same way that blockbuster movies are illegally available online. The makers of D-Code, however, feel not enough has been done to protect their show. “I am aware of at least 20 to 25 porn sites – I am sure there are many more – where intimate scenes from my show have been posted. Clips of 18 to 40 minutes have been created combining actual shots from the show, ‘making of’ shots and also footages of scenes of the actors on the set in between shots,” said producer-director Roshaan Garry of D-Code, naming sites such as iporntv.net and score69.com and bestwifeporn.com where content of her show has
The makers of ‘D-Code’, however, feel not enough has been done to protect their show.
wrongfully made way. When IANS contacted Vibhu Agarwal, CEO of ULLU, he cited helplessness over the situation. “Pirates have a specific target – to hack, pick and post content in the wrong places. We have an IT team working overtime to stop such occurrences, but these things are practically unstoppable, just as you cannot stop piracy of a big film which is leaked online no sooner that it releases. Forget us, can Netflix and Amazon Prime with so many filters stop piracy of their content? We cannot catch the per-
petrators because they often function from neighbouring countries, and also because copies of a pirated clip gets circulated so rapidly that, by the time you erase one set of errant sites, several others have mushroomed.” The ones who are most affected in this no-win situation are the actors – particularly female actors of such shows. Actress whose have worked in ULLU shows include Gunjan Vijaya, Kajal Shankawar, and Neelu Kohli. When IANS spoke to Kajal, she
C
Film: “Commando 3”; Cast: Vidyut Jammwal, Gulshan Devaiah, Adah Sharma, Angira Dhar; Direction: Aditya Dutt; Rating: **
time, he is fighting against time to foil a plot of Jihadi terror. By 2019, when countless special-op agents, cops, soldiers, spies — and various other keepers of the law - have already saved the nation from Jihad and terrorism on the Bollywood screen a zillion times, the challenge for the makers was to get a new reason to rehash the familiar formula. Commando 3 tries catering novelty by introducing the subject of conversion into the film’s overall plot. As the film opens, we meet a bunch of teenage Jihadis who have willingly converted to Islam
account posted it too – even that site received over two million views. At a moderate calculation, my intimate scene has been viewed over 35 million times online illegally,” says Kajal. While director Garry has filed complaints with the Andheri police in Mumbai, the cyber cell, and also notified Mumbai Commissioner’s office and the I&B Ministry, Kajal says she has lodged an FIR. Given the inability of cyber cops as well as technicians of individual websites, the actress feels the only way out is to restrict what is shown on digital platforms. “Limit sexual depiction on the net. Since this sort of content is being used wrongly and out of context, why don’t we have a solid check? Let a panel of people who matter sit down together and chalk out a plan to restrict such content if we, as a nation, can’t control its flow. I haven’t signed a new project in 10 months fearing what I do in front of the camera will end up being used in a wrong way at a wrong site. I’ve literally quit my job as an actress for now,” says Kajal. Garry, on her part, feels such uncontrolled flow of content on the web will destroy the medium. “We can’t have this going. It will finish the web space,” she sums up.
How Hollywood adds sheen to Bollywood biggies
‘Commando 3’: Pop goes patriotism again ommando 3” tries doing too many things. It tries serving an extra-large dose of pop patriotism, because that’s the flavour of the season and the hero is a special-op commando. It tries being a larger-than-life Bollywood action film of the eighties, and also a designer, new-gen Hollywood thriller. More than anything else, the film tries to be a faithful sequel, because that’s where the money lies. The outcome is a storyline that takes too many liberties to accommodate all of the above, and is as incoherent as it is illogical. In this new sequel, Vidyut Jammwal returns as the eponymous Commando, Karanveer Singh Dogra, who is out to thwart yet another menace that threatens to destroy India. This
still seemed in a state of shock. “This is on-screen molestation,” Kajal describes the situation, adding: “I come from smalltown Etawah, and it didn’t take me long to realise it would be near impossible for me to get films – ‘sab stars ke bachchon ke liye hain’. There’s just the web for outsiders like me to showcase talent. You do your job thinking you’ve done a great job, and then one day someone calls you to say they have spotted an intimate scene of yours on a porn site.” Putting an intimate scene as a standalone clip in a porn site throws it out of context, making it seem vulgar, she adds. “My folks back home wouldn’t be able to understand such things. All they see is I am in a film on a wrong kind of a site. In some clips they have erased my voice and put in sounds of moaning with the action. This makes it seem even more cheap.” Many of the actresses who have been victims of the situation are in a state of depression, avers D-Code director Roshan Garry. The clips invariably go viral, without any mechanism to control web content. “I am told there are over five million views on just one site alone. Some insignificant Instagram
SUGANDHA RAWAL, NEW DELHI
D ‘Commando 3’ introduces the subject of conversion into the film’s plot.
from Hinduism, and are now ready to wreak havoc on Hindustan. Of course, Karanveer will succeed in mission, but more thanks to punches, kicks and karate chops than any intelligent plan of action. Vidyut Jammwal impresses once again in a new action avatar. The leading ladies get to kick butt, too, and both Adah Sharma and Angira Dhar seem to enjoy it. You could be stumped, though, watching Adah’s caricaturish bid to play a Telugu encounter cop. Take it with a pinch of salt. —Vinayak Chakravorty
id the trailers of Panipat and Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior remind you of Game Of Thrones? Or the action of War and Saaho bring memories of Mission Impossible? Well, that’s because the canvas of Bollywood is getting glossier, with the creative geniuses of Hollywood increasingly working on Bollywood projects. From action gurus, stunt directors, VFX experts, cinematographers, musicians, make-up experts, technicians to physical trainers, talent from the West is being roped in to deliver world-standard content in Hindi films. The trend of roping in experts from Hollywood is not new, but something which is growing popular with filmmakers acquiring global sensibilities, and the Indian audience getting receptive towards foreign content. With larger-than-life Hollywood movies, backed up with advanced
‘Panipat’ set to release on December 6.
make-up and technology techniques, high on breathtaking action sequences and on point cinematography, winning hearts in India, Indian filmmakers are updating the look of the project to match up with their foreign counterpart. Star-driven vehicles such as Salman Khan’s Tiger Zinda Hai, Race 3, Bharat, Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff-starrer War, Akshay Kumar’s Kesari and Rishi Kapoor’s Kapoor & Sons are infused with Hollywood mastery.
