‘My WhatsApp Number Was Leaked’: Vikrant Massey on Threats, Trolling and the Cost of The Sabarmati Report

Imagine becoming more famous than you ever expected — and then discovering that fame has found its way into places it was never supposed to reach. Your phone. Your car. Your family. That is the part of his The Sabarmati Report experience that Indian actor Vikrant Massey remembers most sharply.

In a recent conversation with Shekhar Suman on his YouTube show Shekhar Tonite, the actor revisited the backlash he faced after the release of the film, saying his WhatsApp number and car number were leaked and that people openly threatened him. “I had to listen to a lot of abuses,” Massey recalled. “My WhatsApp number was leaked. My car number was leaked. People threatened me openly.”

The film, which released in November 2024, dealt with the burning of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra in 2002 — an intensely sensitive subject in India. Even before its release, Massey had publicly spoken about receiving threats on social media and WhatsApp, including threats that dragged his infant son into the controversy.

But there was something else happening in Massey's life at the same time. He had just become a father. The threats came when his son was six months old Massey said his son was only about six months old when the abuse and threats began to weigh heavily on him. “My son had just been born then. He was just six months old,” he said in the conversation with Suman, adding that he was “heavily impacted”.

This was not entirely new territory for the actor. During the film's promotion in 2024, Massey had already spoken about threats directed at him and concern over his nine-month-old son. He had said people were dragging his child's name into the controversy and that he was worried about the baby's safety. There is a difference between being criticised for a film and having strangers reach into your private life. Massey appears to have felt that difference acutely.

When success stopped feeling like enough

And that brings the story somewhere more personal. By 2023 and 2024, Massey's career was moving fast. 12th Fail had brought him widespread acclaim. Sector 36 followed, and then came The Sabarmati Report. He was being recognised at the highest levels of government; Prime Minister Narendra Modi watched The Sabarmati Report, an experience Massey has previously described as overwhelming. From the outside, it looked like the moment an actor dreams about. Inside his home, however, something felt different.

Massey recalled being away from his family while his son was growing up. “I was finally feeling the fame, but there was a void,” he said. “I was missing my family and my son.” Then came a moment that put the entire equation into perspective. His son began saying “Papa”. And Massey wasn't there. “I did wish for success, but at what cost?” he recalled thinking.

That question helps explain the decision he made soon afterwards.

He chose to step back

In December 2024, Massey announced that he was taking a break from acting, saying it was time to “recalibrate” and return home as a husband, father and son. The announcement came after the success of 12th Fail and The Sabarmati Report, and weeks after he had spoken publicly about receiving threats.

At the time, the announcement was widely interpreted as a retirement. But Massey framed it as a need to step back and reassess his priorities. The irony is hard to miss. The years when Massey finally had the kind of professional recognition he had worked towards were also the years when he began to question what that success was costing him personally.

The film that changed the conversation

The Sabarmati Report itself was never an ordinary release. The film dramatised the 2002 Godhra train-burning incident, in which 59 people died when coach S6 of the Sabarmati Express was set on fire. The subject remains deeply contested and emotionally charged, and the film drew both political support and criticism, including accusations from some quarters that it was propaganda. Massey has said he remains proud of making it.

But the reaction showed how quickly a public debate over a film can become intensely personal for the people who made it. And when a phone number is leaked, the argument is no longer confined to a cinema screen or a social-media post. It follows you home.

And Massey is back on screen

The actor did not disappear from acting. In July 2026, he returned to Netflix with Musafir Cafe, a romantic drama set between Bhopal and Mussoorie, alongside Vedika Pinto and Mahima Makwana. The series premiered on July 24.

So the story is not really about an actor who walked away from fame. It is about an actor who discovered that fame comes with a price — and decided, at least for a while, to ask whether the price was worth paying. There are awards. Hit films. Recognition. The thrill of finally being seen. And then there is a little boy saying “Papa”. Sometimes, that is the voice that makes everything else go quiet.

(With inputs from ANI)