Chennai: Remember contractor Nesamani played by ace comedian Vadivelu in Vijay-starrer ‘Friends‘ Since yesterday, Twitter and other social media platforms are on fire thanks to memes that went viral featuring this character.
Speaking to News Today, Vadivelu said that it was God’s gift to be celebrated and admired by his fans in such a fashion.
How it started?
Twitter movement to save a person named Nesamani began growing in momentum since Wednesday. It began trending across the country, with plenty of people sharing pained messages about his fate and praying for justice. Many Twitteratis assumed that Nesamani was a real person. Within hours, #Pray_for_Nesamani took shape and has been trending ever since.
What it is?
Vadivelu plays a contractor called Nesamani, who finds it really hard to get work out of his assistants in Friends. At this point, one of his aides drops a hammer on him from above, leading to his loss of consciousness. This evergreen comedy scene is very popular.
How it spread?
Several memes and videos started spreading like wildfire after a foreigner raised a doubt about hammer and he was trolled by a Tamil user with Nesamani reference.
Breaking news footages (of Jayalalithaa) have been edited and replaced with Nesamani’s injury scene.
Morphed images where world leaders like US President Donald Trump and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan offering ‘speedy recovery’ wishes to Nesamani has left netizens in splits.
Even edited photos of Stalin and Rahul Gandhi meeting Nesamani at hospital has gone viral. With this topic becoming national trend, people living beyond Tamilnadu wondered what was this about. Soon, some Twitterati pointed out that ‘Nesamani is just a character from the movie’ and ‘not a real person’.
“All credits to God”
When contacted, Vadivelu, said, “The reception people have given to my character Nesamani in Friends is God’s gift to me. The movie was out in 2001. Much was said about it long back. To make a comedy scene from a film go viral after several years of its release is surprising. I don’t want to add more. Since I am not acting in any film as of now, it would be appropriate for me to comment once I am back before the camera. Frankly I have not even seen those memes or videos that are going viral in social media.”
Vadivelu for life
In Tamilnadu, Vadivelu is the sweet heart of meme makers. Be it politics, cinema or sports, no meme is complete without Vadivelu reference.
His dialogues, body language or facial expressions have led to thousands of memes being made on various topics. Even in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha polls, Vadivelu reference was predominant.