Fed up, Modi lookalike wants to shave off beard
A resident of Kerala, MP Ramachandran was used to the attention he attracted for being a lookalike of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Often stopped at railway stations and bus stops by strangers with requests for selfies, he readily obliged. But not anymore.
Ever since the Mumbaibased comedy group All India Bakchod (AIB) used his photograph alongside a morphed picture of Modi with dog’s ears and a snout superimposed, triggering a controversy, Ramachandran has grown tired of his resemblance with the prime minister. “I will shave off my beard next week,” he said on Saturday. His grey beard gone, he hopes he will not make heads turn anymore. “People are misusing my picture. This has been happening for a while,” he told HT from Bengaluru, where his son works.
The photograph of him peering into a mobile while waiting for a train to Bengaluru was taken at Payyanur railway station in north Kerala earlier this week. With his grey hair and beard, he looked uncannily similar to the prime minister and the photograph went viral on social media.
The photograph was picked up thereafter by the AIB for taking a crack at the prime minister. They used Ramachandran’s photograph alongside a picture of Modi’s face with the Snapchat dog filter, using the hashtag #Wanderlust.
Not many found it funny and the Mumbai cyber police on Friday filed an FIR against AIB co-founder Tanmay Bhat for “insulting” Modi.
However, Ramachandran, now retired after having worked in the Gulf for several years, insists he is an ardent
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