Photo: File 

Mahira Khan?s Bollywood debut movie Raees was the most pirated film of 2017, Indian media reported on Thursday.

According to a German piracy tracker, more than six million users shared Raees in peer-to-peer networks.

?I would love people to see Raees but not this way. It?s frustrating and all the more disheartening because the pirated prints are now getting HD quality,? the film?s director, Rahul Dholakia, told an Indian news outlet. 

?You put so much money and effort and theatrical sales get badly affected.?

Dholakia said that the talk of the film being uploaded online had started when it was being released. ?I kept getting calls from the United States. On the day of the release, we brought it down on 175 sites.?

A report stated that India accounts for 60pc of the total file sharers of pirated movies online, while Pakistan accounts for 16pc.

In the list of most pirated movies, Raees was followed by Hrithik Roshan?s Kaabil, which was released on the same date as Raees. As per the German piracy tracker, around five million watched Kaabil online.

The reason why Bollywood films are pirated is lack of unity, director of the film, Sanjay Gupta, told Pinkvilla. 

He added rampant piracy did not exist in the south as they took a united stand against the problem. ?Bollywood is far from united,? Gupta said.