Fake Twitter accounts: veteran directors fall prey

K. Balachander and Visu deny having opened accounts on the SOCIAL MEDIA site; Visu may initiate legal action

Actor Nasser has been roped in by UNICEF to raise awareness of the problem of open defecation. Photo: K. Pichumani

The past few days, Twitter had been abuzz with news that veteran directors K. Balachander and Visu had joined the social network, and they had been active. They had greeted actors on their birthdays, expressed opinions on films and thanked people in the industry.

However, when this reporter contacted the veterans of stage and cinema, both of them denied they had Twitter accounts. The two accounts — @DirKBalachander and @actorvisu — are fake.

Mr. Balachander’s assistant Mohan said, “When I asked the director about the account, he said he would rather talk to people when he met them or call them on the phone.”

Actor-director Visu said he was not very net savvy and that he only checked emails.

“I don’t have a Twitter account. I don’t know if someone else has activated one. I will consult my lawyer and initiate necessary action,” he said.

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Renowned Tamil actor and filmmaker Nasser has been roped in by UNICEF to raise awareness of the problem of open defecation.

The actor said it is the right time to flag the issue as the country is talking about sprucing up infrastructure.

“Even as we call for better roads, it is important to shine light on the lack of toilets and the problem of open defecation in the country. It’s been 65 years since Independence, and millions still don’t use or have access to toilets,” he said. This is not the first time Nasser is getting involved in social causes. He has been associated with NGOs working on environmental conservation, and is a proponent of recycling of garbage.

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The Tamil Nadu Film Producers Council has strongly objected to actor Siddharth’s outburst on Twitter, where he lamented that the producer of the upcoming film ‘Jigarthanda’ had neither informed him nor the film’s director Karthik Subbaraj about its release being postponed.

It appears the actor and the director had been rallying support for the film’s release during the Eid weekend and combating ‘rumours’ the film’s release had been delayed.

It emerged later producer Kathiresan had decided to release the film at a later date. Now, the Producers Council has said it was wrong on the part of the actor and the director to expect the producer to explain his decision to postpone the release.

(Reporting by Udhav Naig, Deepa H. Ramakrishnan and Karthik Subramanian)