Unni Mukundan's 'Marco' falls prey to piracy; HD version leaked
What's the story
Unni Mukundan's latest action thriller, Marco, has fallen prey to piracy as it has been leaked on several piracy websites. This comes even as the movie continues to perform well in theaters since its release on December 20.
The film, which has been praised for its engaging content and compared to Ranbir Kapoor's Animal, is now available for free on torrent sites like 1TamilMV and TamilBlasters.
Even a theatrical print of the original Malayalam version has appeared online.
Arrest made
Meanwhile, a suspect has been arrested for circulating pirated 'Marco'
In a related development, Kochi's cyber cell recently apprehended a BTech student accused of circulating the pirated version of Marco online.
The suspect was allegedly sharing links to the movie on social media platforms.
During initial questioning by cyber police, he denied recording the film himself and claimed he was merely sharing a link received from another individual to gain more followers on Instagram.
Box office concern
Piracy's potential impact on 'Marco's box office performance
While Marco continues to draw crowds in theaters, there is increasing concern over how this online leak could impact its box office performance.
This is not an isolated incident, as other films such as Viduthalai Part 2 and UI have also been leaked online on their release day.
The extent to which these leaks have affected the overall success of these films remains unknown.
Ongoing release
'Marco' continues its theatrical run with dubbed versions
Despite the piracy setback, Marco is continuing its theatrical run.
The Telugu-dubbed version was released theatrically on Wednesday (January 1) while the Tamil-dubbed version is scheduled to release on Friday (January 3).
It recently became the first Indian action movie to receive an R21 certificate in Singapore.
Meanwhile, reports indicate that Marco will soon be available on OTT platforms in multiple languages including Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi, and Telugu after its theater run concludes.