An innocuous paper with a phone number thrown in a scene of the Tamil film Amaran by the lead actor Sai Pallavi has created ‘havoc’ in the life of engineering student VV Vaageesan. The student has now sent a Rs 1.1 crore notice to the makers of the Amaran movie. In his lawsuit, Vaageesan has demanded compensation for what he described as “untold hardships and mental agony” due to his number being shared
In the movie Sai Pallavi who plays the role of Indu Rebecca Verghese tosses a crumpled piece of paper with a mobile number written on it at the lead actor Sivakarthikeyan who is playing the role of Major Mukund Varadarajan. The number turned out to be that of Vageesan.
Naming error on Truecaller
To add to Vageesan’s misery someone saved the number on Truecaller as “Vaageesan Indu Rebbbica VV”. Truecaller is a caller identification app. One can manually add a contact in the Truecaller app. To save a number in Truecaller, you can open the app, enter the phone number, and then manually add the contact details like name, profile picture, etc., through the “Add contact” option. It appears that a fan of ‘Indu Rebecca Verghese’ did the same. And since mobile numbers may be already linked to Vaageesan’s name in Truecaller’s database, the new name that users see linked to this mobile number on the app is: “Vaageesan Indu Rebbbica VV”.
This further encouraged users to call him. Vageesan told The Hindu, which was first to carry the report, that he has been bombarded with calls from both Sai Pallavi fans as well as those trying to reach Indu Rebecca Verghese, wife of Major Mukund.
“Not even able to book a cab”
Narrating his agony “Since the calls keep coming, I have to switch my phone to silent mode. I am worried that I may miss an emergency call or an important message from family members or friends. I have been using this number for two years — it is linked to my bank accounts and given to many of my contacts. I can’t afford to give it up,” he says. “I am unable to even book a cab and call/receive the driver due to continuous incoming calls,” he added.
Telecom company confirms Vaageesan’s complaint
A telecom company confirmed to the publication that the spam issue was flagged by Vaageesan to the customer care/ A senior official said that the company is in the process of responding to the complaint. He did not give any further details on the complaint.
Student raised the issue on social media first
The student claims that he initially sought to resolve the issue informally, tagging director Rajkumar Periyasamy and actor Sivakarthikeyan on social media to request their intervention. He, however, got no response forcing him to take legal recourse. His legal notice demands the removal of his number from the movie and compensation for the “untold hardships and mental agony” caused. The filmmakers, including the director and producers, are reportedly yet to respond to the legal notice.