23 Aug - Producer Izzaidah Khairan is furious that "Imam", the first movie of her company, Alkahfi Pictures, was illegally released on YouTube and other social media platforms. The producer, who is also the wife of director Mio Hashim Manap, stated that she felt saddened to see that the movie already has 70,000 views on YouTube, as well as on Instagram and TikTok.
"The movie was released in March, and then we gave the right of release to Astro First. The YouTube upload came after that... People didn't watch it in cinemas, but they watched it for free. When this happens, it's hard for us to produce more movies after this," she said.
Izzaidah stated that YouTube has already removed the movie from the platform, but the movie is still on TikTok. "I've said to the YouTuber that I will see them in the hereafter. If we can't sue them here in this world, we will meet again in the afterlife," she added. "Imam", based on the novel of the same name by the late literary icon Abdullah Hussain, tells the story of Haji Mihad, a progressive imam who finds himself receiving backlash from his own community for wanting to reform the mosque as well as other changes for the betterment of the community. It stars M. Nasir in the lead, with Faizal Hussein, Vanida Imran, Natasha Charmaine, Omar Abdullah, Jalaluddin Hassan and other notable actors joining the cast.