Man sues popular actor for ruining his life by showing his phone number in movie

A man has sued popular Bangladeshi movie star Shakib Khan, for ruining his life after he used his business phone number on-screen in one of Khan’s recent films. 

The plaintiff, Ijajul Mia, who's an auto-rickshaw driver alleged that ever since the film launched, he has since been receiving phone calls from the actor’s female fan base, which caused significant disruption to his life.

The movie, Rajneeti, was released on June 25, 2017. 

In the movie, Khan who is one of the country’s highest acclaimed actors is seen and heard calling out a phone number, which is a common trope in Bangladeshi films.

But unfortunately, it was the real number of Ijajul Mia, an auto-rickshaw driver from the Jatrapasha village, in Baniachang Upazila, and the scene has ruined his life and his wife is even threatening to leave him. 

It was also reported that a few weeks after the film’s release, the phone number had already been widely shared among Shakib Khan’s fans, and in a five day period in July Mia claims to have received over 500 calls from women seeking the popular actor.

“Every day I got hundreds of calls, mostly from female fans of Shakib Khan,” Mr. Mia told the AFP news agency.

“They would say ‘Hello Shakib, I am your fan. Do you have two minutes to talk to me?'”

At one point the phone calls became so frequent that Ijajul’s wife began to suspect that he was cheating on her with other women.

“I am a newly-married man with one daughter,” Mia said. “When these calls started coming, my wife thought that I was having an affair.”

The auto-rickshaw driver also narrated one of his sad experiences with a desperate fan who traveled 300 miles to see him after tracking down his address, believing that he was Shakib Khan. 

According to him, the incident caused his wife to leave the family home to stay with relatives as she became convinced that he was having an affair with the woman.

Mr. Mia is now considering to sell his family home to escape the awkward attention, but won't be changing his phone number, because that would mean losing business from his clients.

In the lawsuit, he filed against Khan, as well as the film director Bulbul Biswas and producer Ashfaq Ahmad, he is seeking ($60,000) in damages after they used his personal information without permission. 

He also alleged that the filmmakers have financially damaged him as he now “spends most of his day receiving calls.”

The case will be heard by a district judge on December 18, 2017.