Furthermore, the surge in affordable data plans in India made legal streaming services (like Chaupal, which is exclusive to Punjabi content) more accessible. By the end of 2020, awareness campaigns by actors like Diljit Dosanjh and Amrinder Gill convinced many fans that "Piracy is not love for cinema; it is theft."
By 2025, the landscape has changed. Chaupal, a dedicated Punjabi OTT platform, has aggressively priced its subscriptions at less than the cost of a single cinema ticket. Furthermore, production houses now release movies with a "windowed" strategy—theatrical > digital (30 days) > television, making piracy less attractive. filmyhit punjabi movies 2020