Just few days after its June 27 theatrical release, the mythological epic Kannappa.

In which Vishnu Manchu stars alongside Akshay Kumar, Prabhas, Mohanlal and Kajal Aggarwal, has already been made victim of a big piracy attack.

More than 30,000 unauthorized streaming and download links have been removed from the Web, mostly from Twitter, scaring the daylights out of the filmmaking community.

Actor Urges Fans: Watch Legally

Within hours, actor Vishnu Manchu, who starred in one of the movies, took to social media, heartbroken, to confirm that the news was indeed true. In a touching letter to fans, he wrote, 'My sweet cinelovers, Our Kannappa is being hit by piracy. Over 30,000 illegal pirated links have been taken down so far.'

As someone who’s worked on and advocated for this work, this is gutting to see. In fact, compared to these industries, the argument that piracy is the same as theft doesn’t hold water at all. 

Illegal leaks Anger Vishnu Manchu

After all, we would never teach our children to steal. Increase investments to reaffirm and invigorate the role of filmmaking and film culture. These three words, Har Har Mahadev, are enough to wake up a nation.

Film's promising start could be threatened by piracy. Audiences urged to support the cast and crew by watching through legal platforms and theaters. Kannappa, in which Vishnu Manchu stars alongside Akshay Kumar, Prabhas, Mohanlal and Kajal Aggarwal, its amazing for a movie to have such a star cast.