Sony LIV's promotional 'prank' for Undekhi creates panic; Mumbai Police instructs channel to withdraw tactic
In a bid to promote Undekhi, Sony LIV prank-called several people in Mumbai and played disturbing recordings of a man begging for help, saying a killer wants to take his life.
A promotional "prank" by an online streaming platform confounded several residents of Mumbai on Friday, 10 July, leading to a slew of calls to the police control room.
Late in the evening, the cyber cell of Maharashtra police said it had asked Sony LIV, the streaming service, to stop the promotional activity.
The main control room of Mumbai Police started getting calls from people in the afternoon that they had received strange calls from numbers starting with 140 or 40.
Vaibhav Pawar, who owns an advertising agency, said around 4 pm, a man who identified himself as Rishi' called him, begging for help and saying that he had witnessed a murder and recorded the incident on his mobile phone. The killer was now trying to kill him, the man said.
Many others received similar calls, not realising that it was a gimmick to promote Sony LIV's new series Undekhi.
Some also tweeted about it, tagging the Mumbai Police's Twitter handle.
Finally, Sony LIV clarified it was a promotional activity.
Check out the tweet here
If you have received a call for our show Undekhi & it has disturbed you we would like to sincerely apologise to you. This was a test activity which has gone out accidentally & our intention was not to cause any kind of discomfort or panic. We sincerely regret any inconvenience.
— SonyLIV (@SonyLIV) July 10, 2020
Maharashtra Cyber tweeted that people should not panic and spread rumours if they had received these calls.
Here are the tweets
It has come to our attention that a Sony Liv, a tv channel has used a tactic for the promotion of its new show by calling people and playing a disturbing voice recording. If you receive any such call, please do not panic and create rumours. (1/n) — Maharashtra Cyber (@MahaCyber1) July 10, 2020
We have instructed the channel to cease this promotional activity immediately. (2/n)
— Maharashtra Cyber (@MahaCyber1) July 10, 2020
(With inputs from Press Trust of India)
also read
Why Friends: The Reunion is a missed opportunity at course correction for a homogeneous, oversimplified show
It does not take a genius to figure that Friends has not aged well. One cannot really undo the past but, when you are putting out a new piece of content, one can right some of those wrongs.
Tiger Shroff, Disha Patani booked for violating pandemic norms by roaming at public place
Tiger Shroff was found roaming near the Bandra bandstand in the evening, hours after the 2 PM deadline for restrictions on the movement of people outside their houses without a valid reason, police officials said
To hell and back: Rebirth of Lucifer on Netflix allowed the show to wreak heavenly havoc for two more seasons
The concluding part season of Lucifer is well-paced, well-written, and follows what the past one-and-a-half seasons have set up quite beautifully.