Unreleased bollywood film leaked on YouTube

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A rough cut of Sudhir Mishra's new film "Tera Kya Hoga Johnny" has surfaced on the internet, putting the spotlight on a thriving bootleg industry that sees Bollywood lose up to USD 400 million in revenue annually.

The film, which stars Neil Nitin Mukesh, Soha Ali Khan and Kay Kay Menon, was slated to open in Indian cinemas this summer - but found its way to YouTube this week.

"I only want to appeal to everyone, especially kids and teenagers, not to watch the film illegally because they are the ones who are always on the net," director Mishra told Reuters.

"We try our best to see that we protect the print as much as we can but you hear so many things nowadays and piracy has become so prevalent that it is difficult to stop something like this happening."

Piracy is rampant in the Hindi film industry, causing losses of up to USD 400 million annually. In September, two executives working in film distribution companies were arrested for their alleged involvement in aiding and abetting piracy.

The producers of "Tera Kya Hoga Johnny" said they have asked YouTube to remove the film from the popular video-sharing website and would file a complaint with the Mumbai police.

"The final cut hasn't even been done yet and we are still working on the background score of the film," said Pankaj Kapoor, Director of Content and Communication at Medient Entertainment.

Kapoor acknowledged the problem of industry insiders aiding piracy but did not comment on whether this had been the case with "Tera Kya Hoga Johnny".