Jaw-dropping story of man who made $2.3M from streaming pirated movies

Captain Jack Sparrow has nothing on this guy, with Emandi Ravi being known as the piracy kingpin of Tollywood. Reportedly the man behind the iBomma piracy site, Ravi has been connected to a wider network of illegal activities that included the promotion of online betting.

India's Hyderabad Cybercrime Police have expanded their crackdown on illegal online activities, linking Ravi to both iBomma and the Bappam film piracy networks. The mastermind was apprehended in the city of Hyderabad following an international search.

Having returned to India from Europe following some messy divorce proceedings, Ravi was apparently arrested in Hyderabad's Kukatpally area. Authorities confirm he was also diverting currency from users into illegal betting platforms like 1win and 1xbet.

The sites were sent through a further 65 mirror sites, with Cloudflare suggesting that they would regularly change domain names to avoid detection. Ravi's downfall comes after he supposedly boasted that he was beyond the reach of law enforcement, although he was eventually tracked by phone signals.

The Hyderabad City Police took to X and explained: "These websites host newly released theatrical and OTT films in HD quality, causing massive financial losses to the Telugu film industry."

Ravi is said to be 39 and completed a B.Sc. in computers before moving to Mumbai and working for private companies while he undertook his MBA.

After establishing a domain registration firm called ER Infotech, Ravi is said to have observed the high demand for streaming services like Netflix and conceived the idea of a free website that would stream high-quality movies while earning revenue through adverts. At the same time, he noticed a rapid growth in online betting platforms and saw them as another profitable outlet in terms of partnerships.

It’s claimed that Ravi married outside of his religion in 2016, but was mocked for his low income. After getting divorced, he apparently started looking for quick ways to accumulate wealth.

Ravi is accused of starting iBomma in 2019, catalyzing his piracy empire. Things recently intensified when the Anti-Video Piracy Cell of the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce (TFCC) upped its investigation into piracy sites and claimed that it cost the industry a whopping $418.1 million in 2024 alone.

It was hard to track the piracy kingpin down, especially as he used Caribbean-based servers to exploit jurisdictional loopholes and keep his anonymity.

He supposedly earned at least $1.36 million from ads run on movie piracy sites, although his whole criminal empire is said to have nabbed him a cool Rs 20 crore ($2.3 million).

Upon Ravi's arrest, police seized storage devices and hard drives from his residence, as well as moving to freeze his international bank accounts that hold up to Rs 3 crore ($339,000). He's now been charged under the Information Technology Act and the Cinematography Act, with authorities expected to seek further interrogation from the courts.

Hyderabad police are now focused on using the evidence they've seized to expose the global network of accomplices who helped him source and distribute the pirated content.