There’s a new woe called Leak plaguing the world. While Dharmendra Pradhan at the Centre and various investigative agencies across states desperately attempt to plug the NEET leak, much after the horse has bolted and affected students in Haryana, Bihar, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, the film industry grapples with a similar worry.
Even a name as big as S.S. Rajamouli wrung his hands helplessly. A film he had discussed with Telugu star Mahesh Babu as far back as 2010 took shape on paper a dozen years later, and it took two more years for a film-worthy screenplay to emerge in 2024-2025. Working alongside his legendary writer-father Vijayendra Prasad, Rajamouli wrapped his ₹1,400 crore film in great secrecy. Names like Globe Trotter and SSMB29 whirled around but even the title of Rajamouli’s time travel saga was kept as hush-hush as a surgical strike, and every crew member was sworn to keep a finger on the lip through strict non-disclosure contracts.
The media was flown in to Hyderabad and a crowd of one lakh fans gathered in Ramoji Film City, where Rajamouli had the largest LED screen ever in place. His plans to unveil the film title were spectacular.
Sitting amidst these large-scale arrangements, imagine the disappointment when the screening of his teaser finally took off and then stopped midway due to “technical glitches”. It was the bane of the new, technically advanced world — a leak. As he explained it himself, his team couldn’t do a full dry run to ensure a glitch-free event because of a rogue drone up there.
When a filmmaker has envisioned the impending arrival of an asteroid across time periods or yugas as we call it, has global ambitions of making Varanasi in Telugu with 25+ dubbed versions including Chinese, Korean and Japanese, has his shoots stretching from Africa to a nearly-inaccessible Antarctica, and has his own ideas for how to introduce his film to his audience, he will have elaborate layers of security. But nothing could stop an action sequence that Rajamouli shot on a set resembling Kashi from being leaked on social media platforms.
Rajamouli has great company as a 15-minute AI-generated version of SRK’s dual timeline film King is currently in the news. Made by stringing together all the visuals thus far leaked from Shah Rukh Khan’s sets, including a Cape Town schedule featuring Abhishek Bachchan as the antagonist, it is a king-sized spill.
Snatches from an item song picturised on Ram Charan and Shruti Haasan from Peddi that’s releasing on June 4 and Tamil Nadu CM Vijay’s entire farewell film Jaya Nayagan have also been leaked.
How does unauthorised footage from huge films protected with nearly impenetrable security shields go viral?
Even a filmmaker with the immaculate credentials of Rajkumar Hirani was unable to prevent leaks from films like Dunki and Sanju. Hirani explained, “When we were shooting for Dunki in an open environment in London, someone with a zoom lens managed to take a picture. So much has changed today, everybody has access to cameras. I remember Ranbir’s look in Sanju also got leaked because someone took a picture from a terrace when we shot on Carter Road... we have our security systems. But sometimes a leak still happens.”
But why does it matter so much to filmmakers? “Unveiling a look, like Aamir’s three looks in PK,” clarified Raju, “is used by us as a part of our marketing strategy. If it is leaked, it hurts our marketing campaign.”
There are questions that will linger. Do leaks dull the anticipation? Or do they act as an appetiser with the audience wanting more? Are some spills insider jobs masquerading as leaks?
Whatever the answer, leak is the new four-letter swearword of the day.
Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and an author