Basil Joseph’s ‘Ponman’ leaked online within hours of release

Basil Joseph’s latest Malayalam film ‘Ponman’, directed by Jothish Shankar, has fallen prey to piracy within hours of its theatrical release on January 30.

The much-anticipated film which is based on GR Indugopan’s novel ‘Nalanchu Cheruppakkar’, has been leaked on several illegal websites, making it available for free downloads on phones and desktops. Reports also suggest that the full movie is being streamed on platforms like Reddit and 123Movies.

This piracy issue comes at a crucial time when Ponman is getting decent reviews from the audiences and has made Rs 75 lakhs on its opening day at the box office.
Unfortunately, ‘Ponman’ is not the only recent release affected by piracy, as multiple South Indian films have faced similar issues, raising concerns about the industry's financial losses. Basil Joseph’s previous outing ‘Sookshmadarshini’ also faced piracy issues.
Earlier Tovino Thomas starrer fantasy action flick ‘ARM’ had also faced the same issue. The ‘ARM’ director Jithin Laal shared an Instagram post where a person was seen watching the pirated version of the Krithi Shetty starrer on his phone. Jithin wrote, “A friend send me this... heart breaking… vere onnum parayan ella… telegram vazhi ARM kanendavar kanatte… alathe enth parayana.”
Meanwhile, the latest issue of ‘Ponman’ leaking online has further heightened the issue of movies leaking online and it should be seen whether this would affect the movie’s box office performance.
ETimes gave a rating of 4.5 out of 5 for ‘Ponman’ and our review reads, “The film’s success is in its ability to keep audiences hooked and curious to know how Ajesh will manage to get his gold back. The suspense and resolution is so clever, it'll have us clapping and then, the writers and director take it a notch higher with a small twist; we can't take it anymore, we just want him to get his gold back. But apart from this, it is the beauty of the characters, and their spirit of survival, that will stay with the audience after the movie is over. Writers Indugopan and Justin Mathew have done a superb job of creating layered characters - the mother, Steffi, Mariyano, and the several smaller characters - that we love, hate, sympathise and empathise with. And we are given glimpses of Ajesh’s ‘craziness’ early on and so never doubt his almost insane drive to get his gold back. What a well-written character.”