Actor Suresh Chandra Menon was presumed dead earlier this week, following a mistake by a leading Tamil news channel while reporting on the death of Malayalam director Diphan. Menon has now told Silverscreen that the erroneous news was a “rude shock” and he hoped media channels would be more responsible in future with sensitive news.
Both Diphan and Menon had made films titled Pudhiya Mugam, and both resembled each other – somewhat.
While Menon made Pudhiya Mugam in 1993, Diphan made the Malayalam language Puthiya Mukham in 2009.
Suresh Chandra Menon emphatically told Silverscreen that he was still alive. He said, “I was very surprised when people called me to check in on me. It was a rude shock. I hope media channels can do a little bit of fact-checking before reporting on such sensitive news. My friends, relatives and well-wishers were greatly affected by this.”
While the death hoax is nothing new to cinema, in Menon’s case – the hoax wasn’t born out of malice. It was genuine misreporting.
Menon insisted that he himself wasn’t all that affected by the news. He went on to post a beaming selfie on Facebook and said, “I was not affected because I knew I was alive.”
The actor will next be seen in GV Prakash Kumar’s 4G and Suriya’s Thaana Serndha Kootam.
