Have you ever wondered while watching a show when the phone rings, who’s number it actually is? Well, you’re not the only one.
An Indian expat in Sharjah has beenon the recieving end of thousands of phone calls from around the world ever since the second season of the Sacred Games was released on Netflix on August 15.
Why? Because it’s his number that flashes on the screen when a supposed Dubai gangster number is shared between intelligence agents, Now usually, movies and TV shows avoid this particular kind of problem by either using fake numbers or numbers that don’t exist. US-based shows use the number 555-XXXX on screen which has been rumoured to be reserved by phone companies specifically for their use.
In the case of Sacred Games, this didn’t happen, and one unlucky Sharjah resident has now been bombarded with thousands of calls.
In the show, an undercover Indian agent from Kenya hands a piece of paper to Ganesh Gaitonde (Siddiqui) with the mobile number of the gangster Isa.
“Hearing my phone ring sends shivers down my spine. I want to cancel my number. I want this problem to go away,” Kunhabdulla said in an interview with Gulf News.
Kunhabdulla, 37 however has never heard of Sacred Games and is employed by a local oil company.
“What’s Sacred Games? A video game? I work from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. I don’t have time for such things,” he told Gulf News. “I got more than 30 calls (on Sunday) and it’s draining my battery. In the last hour, I got five calls asking for someone called Isa… Who is Isa? I don’t have anything to do with him.”
Netflix however has since removed the phone number and has issued an apology.
“We apologise for any inconvenience caused. As soon as we were alerted to the situation, we resolved the issue and removed the phone number from the subtitles,” Netflix said in a statement.
