Riots erupted in Bangalore as tens of thousands of grieving Rajkumar fans stayed away from work, leaving hundreds of helplines unmanned.
The violence left at least four people dead and caused the city to grind to a halt.
Rajkumar - star of over 200 films - died of a heart attack on Wednesday, aged 77.
In Britain, Onetel customer Bob Arnold, 62, said: 'I waited in all day for a call and it did not come.
'Eventually I was told no one had got back to me because an actor has died.
It is unbelievable. These Indian call centres are bad enough but I have never heard of that excuse.
'I mean, when David Niven died I still went into work.' The phone company - owned by Carphone Warehouse - admitted 80 per cent of its staff did not go to work.
Internet service provider Be shut down its operation in Bangalore indefinitely.
In an email sent to customers on Wednesday evening, the company said: 'We have just been informed that there is a 24-hour government enforced curfew in Bangalore due to local civil unrest and, as a result, we are unable to handle any calls or tickets from there.' Travellers were concerned that National Rail Enquiries could be affected, as some of its call centres are in Bangalore.
But callers were not hit by long delays because most of its phone operators are still based in the UK.
A spokesman said: 'If India were to drop off the map tomorrow we still have the capability to answer customers' calls in the UK.
' People should not worry about not getting through to us just because of the death of a Bollywood actor.'
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