A cell phone number which figures in a Malayalam mystery murder film has given sleepless nights to a BSNL employee. The number 94470 81881 which belongs to BSNL accounts officer N Sasidharan has been ringing endlessly ever since the movie Nadia Kollapetta Rathri (The night Nadia was killed) was released.

The number figures just once in the film which unravels the mystery behind the twin murders on a Chennai-Palakkad Express train. As the story goes, Dr Ajay Ghosh, played by actor Madhupal rattles off this number to a ticket examiner whom he befriends on the train. Ghosh wants the checker to call his number from the phone of a beautiful girl co-passenger. The collector obliges and requests the heroine played by Kavya Madhavan to allow him to make a call. She promptly gives him her phone and the collector calls Madhupal’s number.

“I keep getting at least 20 to 30 calls every day even after the film has completed 50th day,’’ says Sasidharan. “People ask whether I am Madhupal and where is Kavya or just who I am. I have had enough,” says Sasidharan.
He has now filed a case against K Madhu, director of the Suresh Gopi-starrer demanding damages of Rs 5 lakh for the inconvenience. “The problem with the number is that it is my official phone of customer service which I cannot switch off,” he says. The result: Sasidharan gets calls even during the night after the last show. “I have also registered a police complaint with the Fort police,” he says.

Director K Madhu who has delivered a string of hits involving murder mysteries apparently did not anticipate a trouble of this scale. However, the episode has a lesson to offer to filmmakers: use your own phone numbers in your films.