"Pathetic! Don't drag Sushant's name!": Fans irked as ex-Twitter India chief asks Elon Musk: 'How did SSR verify his phone number?'

Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput passed away on June 14, 2022., his untimely demise sent shockwaves to the nation. The actor allegedly died by suicide at his Bandra apartment in Mumbai. Reportedly his sister Priyanka and brother-in-law Siddharth Tanwar took care of Sushant's dog who also passed away this year. His relatives often shared chats and details about SSR's death. However, it has never been reported that the late actor's social media accounts are handled by his family or say even his father. A rather unusual incident became a talking point in media when SSR got its Blue subscription service.

As per new rules and regulations by Elon Musk, many B-town celebs lost access to their legacy blue tick mark on the micro-blogging site. profiles of late actors Sushant Singh Rajput and Sidharth Shukla got back their tick.

Ex-Twitter India chief asks Elon Musk: 'How did Sushant Singh Rajput verify his phone number?' (details )

The former head of Twitter India, Manish Maheshwari, slammed Elon Musk and wonders how Sushant Singh Rajput (among other celebs who have passed away) would come to allegedly verify their phone numbers for Twitter Blue. He wrote that either Elon Musk is lying or somehow people have figured out a way to carry their cell phones in the afterlife.

Reacting to this, many netizens took to the comment section and penned comments like 'Sushant Singh Rajput has people who love him and honour him even after his death', another wrote, 'Elon giving the free blue tick to all with 1M+ followers.. they don't have to pay $8.'

Some even slammed the ex-Twitter chief for not knowing the new rules of Twitter and unnecessarily dragging SSR's name.

A user wrote, " I have to wonder how you used to be Twitter India Chief, after this tweet."

Another user mentioned, "Trying to stay relevant using Sushant's name! Pathetic."

Other late celebrity accounts who got a blue tick without verification

Basketball player Kobe Bryant and Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman's accounts also bore the verification mark.

Here's how celebs got Twitter's blue tick without paying

It was then reported that social networking platform Twitter's CEO had decided to restore the coveted blue tick for many of them for free if they had a follower count of one million or more. The action was performed even if some or all of them had not paid for subscriptions.

Several Twitter users with reportedly over a million followers were surprised to find that their Blue Check verification badges, which had disappeared during Elon Musk's recent purge of legacy verified accounts, had been reinstated. However, many of these users were not pleased with the sudden change, as they do not support Twitter Blue - the subscription service that offers additional features to users for a monthly fee.

A few eminent Indian personalities who got their blue check marks back included Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, and Amitabh Bachchan, among others.

Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan is among such celebrities who got his blue tick back without paying a single penny. However, Amitabh Bachchan had to pay for Twitter's blue tick.

How much do you have to pay for blue tick?

Twitter had removed the legacy blue checkmarks from several accounts, ranging from government, celebrities, business leaders, and politicians so that the users could take a Twitter Blue subscription which in India is priced at Rs 650 per month on computers and Rs 900 on mobiles for individual user accounts.