The Madras High Court on Friday banned 169 service providers and 225 websites from releasing Rajinikanth-starrer Kabali, reported ANI. The film is scheduled to be out on July 22. The film’s producer, Kalaipuli S Thanu, had moved the court seeking protection from piracy and requested it to direct internet service providers to block access to websites that might have released Kabali.

The petitioner had added that users could download the film for just Rs 20 in a few minutes, while producers incurred huge losses. The movie cost around Rs 100 crore to make, The Hindu reported.

Tamil film Iraivi, which was out on June 3, was available for illegal download the next day. Till June 30 Iraivi had 1.1 lakh downloads, generating Rs 23 lakh revenue for internet service providers, senior advocate Vijay Narayan had told the court. “There are 160 ISPs licensed in India and approximately 70% of their revenue comes from such illegal downloads that are done in complete violation of the terms and conditions of their licence,” Narayan said.