The Indian superstar inadvertently cashing in on Brisbane Airport

As you read this, I will be on my way back from a (hopefully) sunny beach in Koh Samui, where I just spent a week sipping unnaturally bright-coloured cocktails with comically small umbrellas nestled within.

And, as is tradition when traversing this amazing green-blue globe, there will no doubt be a Facebook airport check-in, at which point those poor souls unfortunate enough to be subjected to my social media musings will be introduced to a random Indian actor.

Naga Shaurya.

Indian actor Naga Shaurya’s handsome mug inexplicably shows up on the Facebook feeds of some Brisbane-bound travellers. Credit: Marija Ercegovac

Who? We’ll get to that shortly.

Why? Because for several years now, Brisbane-bound travellers checking in on Facebook at airports have inadvertently told their friends they’re India-bound to hang out with Shaurya.

It’s one of those things that when you notice it once, you keep noticing it. Over and over again, Naga Shaurya shows up in my Facebook feed as my friends start their journeys home.

Seems to be a popular bloke.

For those of you who have seen Shaurya’s handsome mug show up on their feed and wondered who he was, you’re in luck. I went to Wikipedia so you don’t have to.

He’s a pretty big deal in Tollywood, which is basically Bollywood in the Telugu language.

Aged 35, Shaurya made his name in the coming-of-age flick Cricket Girls & Beer, a movie title that really drives home the importance of commas.

His most recent film, Rangabali, is an action rom-com, which is really the best kind of rom-com, if you’re into that kind of thing.

I tried to reach out to Shaurya to see what he thought about being so intrinsically linked to a city almost 9500 kilometres from his home, but it turns out getting in touch with a superstar actor in Hyderabad is about as hard as you’d assume (though my DMs are open, Naga!).

As for the root cause of this glitch in the matrix, I also reached out to Facebook to see if Meta’s technical boffins could shed any light on what was going on.

We await their response.

Brisbane Airport was, mercifully, a little easier to reach, thanks to spokesman Peter Doherty.

Like any good media man, Doherty smelt an opportunity and used the Shaurya phenomenon to talk up the airport’s links to the nation that, in April, became the world’s most populous.

“While we’re not sure what’s behind this bizarre online glitch, we’re very sure about the dramatic rise of India as a source of visitors for Brisbane,” he said.

“In the past year, a whopping 120,000 people on Indian passports passed through Brisbane Airport, making it the eighth-biggest source of arrivals. That’s a massive jump on pre-pandemic numbers.

“So, while Facebook might be sending you to Tollywood, the real-life trend is all about the growing travel between India and Brisbane.”

Sadly for Brisbane – and Naga Shaurya, I’m sure – there are not currently any direct air links between the city and the subcontinent.

Which is a shame because I’m sure a few yarns could be spun here about girls, cricket and beer that he might just enjoy.