Bengaluru Job Scam Mirrors Dragon Movie Plot: Engineer Uses Friend to Fake Infosys Interview

Bengaluru: In a bizarre turn of events straight out of a Tamil film, a young software engineer from Telangana found himself embroiled in a real-life scandal after attempting to land a job at Infosys in Bengaluru by impersonating himself during a virtual interview. The man, identified as Rapa Sai Prashanth, now in his 20s, is facing legal action for cheating and impersonation after it was revealed that he had sent a friend to attend the interview on his behalf.

The drama unfolded when Prashanth applied for a job at Infosys through a recruitment portal and submitted his resume. His credentials were verified by Kishore, an accounts manager at Sampradaa Software Technologies, the recruitment agency responsible for sourcing candidates for the tech giant. The documents were then forwarded to Infosys by Kishore’s manager, Shiva Prakash. When it came time for the virtual interview, Prashanth was nowhere to be found. Instead, he had arranged for a friend, who was more fluent in communication, to attend the interview on his behalf.

Initially, everything seemed to go smoothly. Prashanth received an offer letter from Infosys on January 20, 2025, and joined the company shortly after. However, it wasn’t long before things started to unravel. Infosys staff grew suspicious of his communication skills — or lack thereof — as his performance on the job didn’t match the confident, articulate responses he had given during the interview. A senior police officer explained, "Prashanth is good in academics, but poor in communication. He struggled to clear interviews with other companies, so he decided to take the help of his friend to attend the virtual interview."

The employees quickly noticed the mismatch and decided to investigate further. Comparing screenshots from the interview with Prashanth’s photo, they confirmed their suspicions: the man who had interviewed was not the same person who had shown up for the job.

Once exposed, Prashanth was promptly sacked. He reportedly fled to Hyderabad, but not before making a bold request, asking to be paid for the 15 days he had worked. The company has filed a case under the Information Technology Act, along with sections 318 (cheating) and 319 (cheating by personation) of the Indian Penal Code.

Despite the uproar, Prashanth's story bears an uncanny resemblance to the plot of the Tamil movie Dragon, where the protagonist (played by Pradeep Ranganathan) asks his friend to attend an interview at a high-tech start-up on his behalf, as he is ineligible for the position due to his academic failings. In this case, however, reality caught up with Prashanth much sooner than he had hoped.

As authorities continue their search for him, one thing is clear: his plan might have worked in the movies, but it was no match for the vigilance of the real world.