Ravi Admits Threatening Vijay Deverakonda, Police Reveal
HYDERABAD: The police investigation into the iBomma piracy case has revealed that site operator Imandi Ravi had threatened actor Vijay Deverakonda in 2023, during the leak of the film Kushi. The police made the warning public on Saturday as his custody ended.
Ravi says he acted alone in piracy operations
During questioning, Ravi told investigators that no one else was connected to his activities. “I have no links with anyone in the world. I alone am responsible for everything that happened behind the piracy of films,” he said, according to police.
Officers said Ravi admitted that he chose the piracy route “solely to make money”.
Threat to Deverakonda traced to 2023 leak
Police said Ravi used the iBomma website to challenge Deverakonda after Kushi was pirated. They released the warning he had issued at the time.
“Our team had already said that if you focus on us, we will have to focus on you. You ignored us. You are paying agencies, but they are crushing us and running a site called iBommaff.in in our name. So we will release your Kingdom film,” Ravi purportedly told the actor.
How the iBomma and Bappam names were chosen
Ravi explained the origin of his domain names during questioning. He said that in Visakhapatnam, people used to say “bomma padindi” when a film entered theatres. “So I chose the name iBomma meaning my film. Bappam means supreme. I picked it because I wanted to remain supreme over my platform,” he told police.
He also said he outsourced domain management and design work to employees in the Caribbean and the United Kingdom.
Filmmakers’ content bought from Telegram, OTT platforms
Police said Ravi admitted sourcing newly released films from Telegram apps, and also recording them from over-the-top platforms. He then used multiple software tools to convert the files into high quality formats for upload to the piracy domains.
