In an unexpected turn of events, director Karthick Naren's drug-based thriller Mafia which stars Arun Vijay, Prasanna and Priya Bhavani Shankar in the lead is facing the wrath of families of murder victims. The film that was released on February 21 and is currently streaming on OTT platforms came under condemnation after it was discovered that a particular scene showing a police investigation board has faces of 5 of the 8 murdered victims of a Toronto serial killer named Bruce McArthur. 

What makes it worse that the murdered men from real life are shown in the movie to be connected to a drug kingpin, naturally infuriating the surviving family members of the victims. Reportedly photos are those of Skandaraj Navaratnam, Selim Esen, Abdulbasir Faizi, Kirushna Kanagaratnam and Soroush Mahmudi which were widely published in the Toronto media till January, 2019 when the killer was sentenced for the crimes he committed between 2010 and 2017. 

A spokesperson for Lyca Productions has been quoted by CBC Toronto that they are 'sorry for using the photos'. "We wish to place on record and tender our unconditional apology to the families of the people for the inadvertent distress caused to them."

The development has also caused Amazon Prime Video to remove the film from their listing and in a written statement, they have told CBC Toronto, "We were concerned to learn that the movie uses pictures of the victims of the Toronto serial homicides and immediately took action,"