Sanjay Bardhan directs films on fake Facebook profiles

Fake Facebook profiles, which have put users of the popular social network often into trouble, is the subject of a new Bengali feature film.
Aptly named 'Fakebook', the film deals with the issue of hacking into others' Facebook accounts through a romantic narrative, Sanjay Bardhan, the director of the movie, said.
Sanjay said there were numerous instances in which Facebook users had been abused and assigned pictures and statuses not belonging to them.
"My film is a sort of docu-feature with references to real life incidents, though there is the strong presence of a narrative," the director said.
The story is about a boy, played by Gourav Chakroborty, who procures a smart phone and gets hooked to Facebook where he is mentored by a tech-savvy, street smart friend (Tanaji). Under his influence, he creates a fake profile hiding his real identity and quickly gets caught in a web of conspiracies, the director said.

Even a few days back there was this report of a teenaged college student ending his life on rail tracks after uploading a picture with his girlfriend on FB and consequently facing threats from the girl's father.

"There has also been instances of people befriending others with fake profiles and information and no caution was used to verify such claims. Our film has been inspired by several such incidents, which all of us might have come across but forget later in the day," he said.
Gourav, who has done a string of new age Bengali films, including acclaimed "Apur Panchali", said, "The story touches everybody's soul. We know the importance of communication. We all know the significance of Facebook, without which we can't do. But fake profiles may bring your world crashing on you."

The film also stars actress Ridhima Banerjee, who said she had faced such situations herself.
"There are several fake profiles in my name. I have got many friend requests for such profiles and these requests keep being repeated," she said.