Sacred Games gives expat sleepless nights A
MAN BESIEGED BY CALLS AFTER NETFLIX SERIES FLASHES PHONE NUMBER
n Indian expat in Sharjah has been inundated with international calls to his mobile after his number featured in an episode of the Netflix series Sacred Games over the weekend.
Kunhabdulla CM’s phone number flashed up on screen as the number of a fictional gangster within the show called Sulaiman Isa. Since the scene first aired on Thursday, the oil company worker has been besieged by calls from people asking him if he was Isa.
“Who is Isa? I don’t have anything to do with him,” Kunhabdulla told Gulf News. “This is a problem that refuses to go away. I am really worried whether I am entangled in problems that aren’t my choice,” he said of fears that people might confuse fiction for reality.
An Indian man in Sharjah has been flooded with unsolicited phone calls from around the world ever since the second season of Sacred Games released on Netflix on August 15.
The reason? His mobile number is shown as fictional gangster Sulaiman Isa’s number in the first episode of the new season.
“I have been getting incessant calls on my phone for the last three days from India, Pakistan, Nepal, the UAE and around the world. I don’t know what is happening. Hearing my phone ring sends shivers down my spine. I want to cancel my number. I want this problem to go away,” said Kunhabdulla CM in his native language Malayalam.
Originally from Kasargode in northern Kerala, Kunhabdulla, 37, works for a local oil company and has never heard of Sacred Games, the blockbuster web series starring award-winning talents Saif Ali Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. Khan plays a Sikh police officer in the TV series while Siddiqui plays a Mumbai-based crime lord.
“What’s Sacred Games?
A video game? I work from 8am to 7pm. I don’t have time for such things. This is a problem that refuses to go away. I am really worried that I will entangled in problems that aren’t my choice,” he said.
‘WHO IS ISA?’
“I got more than 30 calls today [Sunday] and it’s draining my battery. In the last one hour, I got five calls asking for someone called Isa. I even went to the telephone operator’s office to report this. I just want to somehow cancel this number. I don’t want to face any problems. Who is Isa? I don’t have anything to do with him,” he said.
An audibly upset Kunhabdulla has also approached his friends to help him out of this ‘mess’ that wasn’t his doing.
His biggest fear is that he will be detained at the airport and questioned over a possible mistaken identity.
Kunhabdulla’s number went public in the scene where an undercover Indian agent from Kenya hands a note to Ganesh Gaitonde (Siddiqui) bearing the number of dreaded gangster Isa, played by Saurabh Sachdeva. Although the number is not visible on the small piece of paper, the subtitles give it away.
It’s this slip up that is giving Kunhabdulla sleepless nights.
“This has created so much tension in my life. I am just an earnest worker trying to do my job here. I don’t know what to do,” he said.
CLOSE CALL
Last month, another Indian man found himself in a similar situation after Bollywood movie Arjun Patiala mistakenly publicised his number as that of a character
played by former adult star Sunny Leone.
Puneet Agarwal, 26, told BBC he was receiving more than 100 calls a day since the movie was released on July 26 this year.
“I don’t even dream any more,” he said. “The phone keeps ringing until four in the morning,” Agarwal was quoted as saying.
I have been getting incessant calls on my phone for the last three days from India, Pakistan, Nepal, the UAE and around the world. I don’t know what is happening. Hearing my phone ring sends shivers down my spine. I want to cancel my number.” Kunhabdulla CM | Sharjah resident from Kerala