Is This the End of Piracy? Tollywood Hopes Rise After Ibomma Operator’s Arrest!

Tollywood is celebrating today, as the key operator behind the notorious piracy platform Ibomma, Immadiravi, has been arrested and his apps have been shut down. Going by the statements made by film celebrities and Police Commissioner Sajjanar in the press meet, it appears that the industry has narrowly escaped a major threat.

With 20,000 films stored on hard disks and ₹20 crore earned solely through piracy, Ravi’s operations shocked even the police. His repeated challenges—“Catch me if you can”—ultimately led him straight to jail.

But the big question remains: Has the piracy story reached its climax?
Not entirely. Global piracy networks did not rely only on Immadiravi. He was just one major operator. Many more players in this ecosystem are yet to be caught.

Especially dangerous are the Tamil torrent groups such as TamilMV and Tamil Rockers, which leak films on the very day of release. This is a huge international network, and cracking it is essential for a real solution.

Hyderabad Police must target these groups next. If they succeed, the film industry could benefit significantly. When viewers know that pirated prints won’t be available, they will return to theatres. Even if half of them purchase tickets, the box office could see hundreds of crores in additional revenue.

Going by Sajjanar’s statements, the police seem determined to continue the crackdown. The servers responsible for generating cam prints and HD versions must be tracked and permanently disabled.
This is the immediate and most crucial step.