Ram Gopal Varma hits back at those comparing iBomma pirate to Robinhood but admits to watching pirated films too

Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma took to social media to call out the ‘ignorance’ of those hailing the pirate website iBomma and its owner Immadi Ravi.

The man behind the pirate website iBomma, Immadi Ravi, was arrested earlier this week. Since his arrest, a section of the audience has seemed supportive of Ravi's illegal online movie streaming, even comparing him to Robinhood. Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma hit back at such people, calling out their ignorance. Here’s what he said. (Also Read: Nagarjuna reveals his family member was held in ‘digital arrest’ for 2 days; speaks about iBomma shutdown)

Ram Gopal Varma chimed in on the iBomma controversy after Immadi Ravi's arrest.

Ram Gopal Varma on iBomma supporters

RGV wrote a long note on X (formerly Twitter) about how movie piracy will ‘never stop’ not because of weak policing but because there will always be people willing to stream movies illegally. “Now the funniest thing is Ravi supporters proudly comparing him to Robin Hood as if they discovered some Nobel Prize winning logic,” he wrote.

The filmmaker also pointed out that Robinhood fits today’s definition of a terrorist who loots and kills people. “Imagine how depraved one is, to think being financially successful is a crime punishable by theft and murder. It takes tonnes of ignorance to romanticize a criminal as a saint simply because the recipients are getting stolen goods for free,” added RGV.

Calls out people justifying piracy

RGV mentioned in his post that movie tickets being expensive or popcorn being overpriced are not justifiable reasons to pirate a film and steal content. “By that logic, if a BMW is expensive, you should rob the showroom, give all the cars to everyone in the slum. Jewellery expensive? Rob the shop and distribute for free ..The same logic will apply for all goods,” he wrote, adding, “This kind of thinking will lead to social collapse leading to anarchy.”

He also mentioned that people watch pirated content not due to some ‘moral revolution’ but simply because of convenience or financial constraints. “Even people from the film industry including me watch pirated content for the same reason. If anyone is serious about stopping piracy, there’s only one real solution: Apart from criminalising the supplier they should also criminalise the viewer,” he claimed.

He ended the note by suggesting that arresting and publicising the names of people who watch pirated content will generate the desired solution. “Fear works. Morality doesn’t,” he wrote.

Police on iBomma pirate’s arrest

Commissioner of the Hyderabad City Police, VC Sajjanar, spoke to the press earlier this week about the arrest and said, “Be it OG or Kantara Chapter 1, Dude or Mirai, we found all these films on his hard disk. He had 21,000 movies stored on hard disks. If a film was released in the morning, by evening he would upload it onto his website. This man, Immadi Ravi, who carried out all this, is a native of Visakhapatnam.”

Ravi reportedly earned ₹20 crore through various means and collected private data of around 50 lakh people who used iBomma. He also ran more than 60 piracy mirror websites and was caught carrying duplicate IDs and passports.