Mollywood actor, filmmaker and producer Prithviraj Sukumaran on Tuesday issued a statement forgiving the person who had created a fake account using his name on Clubhouse, the popular audio-only app. It comes a day after he exposed the fake account and termed the act of impersonating someone online as ‘criminal’. A man named Sooraj Nair had created a profile on Clubhouse using an ID and image similar to the actor’s Instagram handle, and even held a session where he pretended to be Prithviraj by mimicking his voice.
“Claiming to be me on social media is one thing. Claiming to be me, mimicking my voice, and using an ID that closely resembles my insta handle is all together criminal. Please stop this. I AM NOT ON CLUBHOUSE!(sic),” Prithviraj tweeted on Monday and attached a screengrab of his fake profile on Clubhouse along with a screengrab of the Instagram profile of Sooraj Nair, the person who has been impersonating Prithviraj.
However, a day after he clarified he is not on Clubhouse, Prithviraj wrote a note to Sooraj stating that he understands it was meant as a harmless joke and hoped that Sooraj now understands the repercussions the action could have. “Dear Sooraj. It’s alright. I understand that it was all meant to be a harmless joke. But I hope by now you’ve realised that something like this could have very serious repercussions. At one point, I believe more than 2500 people were listening in to you and that a good majority of them thought it was me speaking. I had repeated calls and messages from many people in and outside the industry, and it was imperative that I put an immediate stop to it,” he said.
Stating that he is glad that Sooraj accepted his mistake, Prithvi encouraged Sooraj to practice mimicry since it is a wonderful art form and cited that there are many Mollywood actors who hail from the world of mimicry. “ I’m glad you admit that it was a mistake. Mimicry is a wonderful art form and I’m sure you know many of Malayalam cinema’s all time greats have found their way into the industry from the world of mimicry. Dream big, work hard and never stop learning. I hope you have an illustrious career ahead and wish you the very best (sic),” Prithviraj said in his statement.
In the postscript section of the tweet, Prithvi added, “ To all my well wishers and others, I DO NOT condone online abuse. So please stop it. And once again..I’M NOT ON CLUBHOUSE (sic).”
Claiming to be me on social media is one thing. Claiming to be me, mimicking my voice, and using an ID that closely resembles my insta handle is all together criminal. Please stop this. I AM NOT ON CLUBHOUSE! pic.twitter.com/nUlxGyzv9H
— Prithviraj Sukumaran (@PrithviOfficial) June 7, 2021
It’s alright. pic.twitter.com/FzhLLAfv0x
— Prithviraj Sukumaran (@PrithviOfficial) June 8, 2021
Many Malayalam actors including Nivin Pauly and Dulquer Salmaan have taken to social media in the past few days to clarify that they are not using Clubhouse after fake profiles were created using their names.