The Kriti Sanon starrer Mimi has received unanimous love and praise from all quarters. However, the process of ‘delivering’ this surrogacy-based film to the audience hasn’t been a smooth one. The film was supposed to release on July 30 on Netflix and Jio Cinema. However, on the morning of Monday, July 26, the producers Maddock Films and Jio Studios as well as Netflix got the shock of their lives when they realized that their labour of love had leaked on the internet. They began to work immediately to remove the download links on torrent websites and Telegram but the damage was done. Left with no other option, the film was released on the same day, in the evening.
A source told us that Maddock Films & Jio Studios will have to bear the brunt of the leak. The source said, “Netflix has not taken this leak incident lightly. Hence, after they learnt about it, they decided to renegotiate the deal. The producers would now be paid slightly less since after it got leaked on pirated websites, Mimi no longer remained an exclusive Netflix release. It is estimated that close to half a million people had already watched the pirated copy leading to decrease in calculated impressions for Netflix.”
The source also adds that the stakeholders got into a tiff after the leak was detected. The source continued, “As soon as they learnt about the leak, tempers and accusations flew thick and fast between Maddock, Jio and Netflix, with the latter two accusing each other of the leak. Finally, they decided to give it an early release.” Interestingly, the press release sent by the makers said that the release is happening earlier to surprise Kriti Sanon on her birthday, which falls on July 27.
A trade expert said, “I couldn’t believe it when I was told that Mimi is out 4 days before its official release on torrent. So many films have been released on OTT since lockdown last year. But no film has ever leaked. How did this happen? I hope the producers and Netflix investigate and punish the culprit so that no one would try to do it again.”
He also remarked, “Thank God it was a digital release. Imagine if Mimi was supposed to release in cinemas and the leak had happened 4 days before. Then the producers would have had no choice but to simply wait for Friday to arrive. Here, at least, they could immediately release it officially so that people could see it legitimately.”