Security police in Tehran yesterday announced the arrest of smuggling band of Dariush Mehrjui's new movie, Santuri.

Mohamadreza Alipour, the head of Tehran Public Security Police, in a meeting with reporters said: "The members of this band with help of computers, color printers, and DVD burners in a large scale participated in illegal distribution of authorized and unauthorized movies." He continued: "More than 2,000 DVDs of Iranian and Foreign movies were confiscated in their hide out."

Santuri, the latest creation of acclaimed director Dariush Mehrjui has been facing difficulties in obtaining permits for public viewing for the past year.

The Internet posting and illegal sale of Santuri's high quality DVD in large scale in Iran started over two weeks ago and caught the director and producer of this movie with great surprise and shock. It estimated this would damage the beneficiaries of movie Santuri over 4 million dollars.

The illegal music/movie street vendors in Tehran say that Santuri is their most popular smuggled item and no other DVD ever sold so many copies.

Source: BBC Persia