Mimi director Laxman Utekar says he was ‘stunned’ and ‘hurt’ after Kriti Sanon-starrer leaked on piracy sites

Mimi director Laxman Utekar has said that he and his team were ‘stunned’ when they learned that the movie had leaked on piracy platforms four days before its scheduled release. Mimi, starring Kriti Sanon in the lead, was slated to release on July 30. However, on Monday evening, bootlegged versions of the film were made available on illegal streaming platforms.

A few hours after the news of the leak made headlines, producer Dinesh Vijan and Kriti Sanon announced that they had decided to release the film four days in advance. Within hours of the leak, Mimi was streaming on Netflix and JioCinema.

Speaking about the leak with Mid-Day, Laxman Utekar said, “I feel hurt because we worked hard on the film. It took us two years to make Mimi. We waited long for the theatres to open, but the situation compelled us to release it on OTT. We were satisfied with the fact that it will be watched by the audience, [no matter the medium]. After what happened on Monday, we were stunned. It makes us wonder if we could have been more careful.”

However, he noted that the leak did not impact the film commercially. “We weren’t impacted by piracy [commercially] because the film was released officially after all,” he said.

Dinesh and Kriti had announced that the film would release early during an Instagram live. Dinesh said that the early release is a gift for Kriti, who celebrated her birthday on July 27. “Like babies are born premature, our film can also come early,” Dinesh had said. Kriti shared the video of the live stream on her Instagram account with the caption, “Mimi STREAMING NOW!!! Mimi went into labour early! Our baby couldn’t wait to see you all!!!”

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Mimi revolves around an aspiring actor, played by Kriti, who is approached to be an American couple’s surrogate for ₹20 lakhs. Mimi agrees to the deal, but is abandoned by the couple midway through the pregnancy. Mimi has opened to mix reviews from critics.