Now, a film on Blue Whale Challenge

In the past few years, Kollywood has churned out films that explored the hazards of technology and how sharing too much information on social media can prove dangerous. Joining that list is debutant director

T Ranganathan

, who’s making a film on the Blue Whale Challenge that rocked the world recently.

For the uninitiated, Blue Whale is a social network ‘game’ that consists of a series of tasks — some that inflict self-harm — that are assigned to the players by administrators over a 50-day period, finally prompting the player to commit suicide.

Ranganathan, who’s assisted several directors, including

SJ Suryah

, says, “Until now, there wasn’t anything like Blue Whale that wrecked havoc on our society, and that’s because of the close bond that parents and children shared. Now, because of economic needs, both the parents are forced to work. Thanks to a demanding educational system, kids return home feeling overburdened, and when they find no one at home to share their worries with, they turn to such games on the internet. Every child has a smartphone today, and that increases the risk. From Blue Whale to the recent Momo Challenge (a form of cyberbullying), there are many such scary games. We may not be able to identify the criminals, but we can show parents how to safeguard their kids. That’s what my film Blue Whale will focus on.”

Poorna plays the role of an ACP, who is on a mission to track down a young boy who’s gone missing. “The missing student leaves behind clues that show he was playing the game,” says the director, “We auditioned three boys to play the role of the missing student, and finally zeroed in on

Kabish Kanna

. We’ve filmed some of the tasks, and it was heart wrenching even while we were shooting them. It’s cruel how the kids are trapped psychologically by criminals. Our aim is to tell parents to spend more time with their kids.”