Malayalam superstar Mammootty was appointed Kerala Police's 'Cyber Security Captain' on 31 October 2026 at a ceremony held at the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium in Kochi, as the state launched a community-driven initiative to counter the mounting threat of cybercrimes. The appointment was announced by Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala at the inauguration of CLICK — Community Led Initiative for Cyber Resilient Kerala — a programme developed by the Kerala Police Cyber Wing under the Home Department.

What CLICK Aims to Achieve

The CLICK programme is designed to make Kerala completely cyber-resilient by 2027, focusing on preventive community awareness rather than reactive policing. Home Minister Chennithala underlined that cybercrimes must be stopped before they happen, not merely investigated after the fact. He noted that more than 54,000 cyber fraud complaints were registered in the state last year alone — a figure that underscores the scale of the challenge. Many of those cases, he said, were made possible by exploiting the lack of technological awareness among ordinary citizens.

What Mammootty Said

Addressing the gathering, Mammootty called on young people to become leaders in the fight against cybercrime and urged parents to guide children on the responsible use of technology. He cautioned against the common practice of handing smartphones to children as a pacifier, arguing it was not a healthy habit. Until children are mature enough to use mobile phones responsibly, he suggested, feature phones are a better option. He also flagged the growing misuse of Artificial Intelligence (AI), warning that the technology was making it increasingly easy to mislead people. 'Society must become capable of identifying and confronting cybercrimes,' he said, describing the new initiative as a step in the right direction.

Key Advisories for Citizens

Chennithala advised the public to use strong passwords, keep applications updated, secure personal data, and exercise caution before clicking on suspicious links. He reminded citizens that victims of cyber fraud should immediately contact the national helpline 1930. Notably, the minister also announced that his own office would be fully digitalised from 3 November, with an online complaint mechanism and a live dashboard to track the progress of public grievances.

Symbolic and Community Outreach

As part of the event, Mammootty presented CLICK Captain caps to 10 selected students, symbolically inducting them into the community cyber-awareness effort. The gesture reinforced the programme's bottom-up approach — enlisting citizens, especially youth, as active participants in digital safety rather than passive recipients of government advisories. This comes amid a broader national push on cybercrime prevention, with states increasingly turning to celebrity figures to amplify public outreach on digital literacy.

What Comes Next

With the 2027 cyber-resilience target now formally on record, the Kerala Police Cyber Wing is expected to roll out CLICK awareness campaigns across districts in the coming months. The digitisation of the Home Minister's office from 3 November will serve as an early test case for the government's own commitment to secure digital governance. Whether the initiative translates into a measurable reduction in the state's high volume of cyber fraud cases will be closely watched.