iBomma Immadi Ravi: Stole 50 Lakh User Data, Earned Rs 20 Crore and Lived Lavish Life
₹3,700 Crore Loss: Film Industry Welcomes Arrest of Pirate Ravi
Ravi Stole 50 Lakh User Data, Earned ₹20 Crore via Piracy
The movie pirate Ravi, who ran the notorious film-piracy websites iBomma and Bappam TV, has been detained by Hyderabad Police and remanded to judicial custody for 14 days after being produced before the court.
Immadhi Ravi, a degree dropout, had been leaking Telugu films even before their official release. Several members of the Telugu film industry filed complaints against him, and the issue was escalated to Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
After multiple failed attempts over the years, Hyderabad Police finally arrested him two days ago from an apartment in the city through a carefully planned “cubing operation”.
According to Hyderabad City Commissioner Sajjannar, IPS, the accused had pirated nearly 21,000 films across various languages, primarily Telugu. The commissioner also revealed that Ravi had hacked several government websites and stolen sensitive citizen data. By selling 50 lakh private user data records, he earned around ₹20 crore, using 35 different bank accounts, of which ₹3 crore has been seized by the Telangana government.
Police stated that their search operation began in 2019. Since then, Ravi had purchased 110 domains and hosted servers in the Netherlands and other countries. Through his piracy websites, he also promoted illegal betting apps and lived luxuriously abroad, frequently travelling to France, the Netherlands, Dubai, the US, and other nations.
Using servers based in Caribbean islands, Ravi allegedly uploaded copyrighted movies and offered them for free, drawing millions of viewers. According to a complaint by the Telugu Film Chamber of Commerce, the Bappam.dev website alone recorded 3.7 million monthly visitors from India. These piracy platforms have caused estimated losses of ₹3,700 crore to the Telugu film industry.
Ravi has been booked under various sections of the Information Technology Act and the Cinematography Act and is currently lodged in Chanchalguda Prison. Hyderabad Police are expected to release more details of the investigation on Monday.
