Kareena Kapoor The Bollywood hot Bebo: When computer engineer Prasad Doke got a call on his cellphone on July 9 wanting to speak to actress Kareena Kapoor, he was amused.
However, when the Thane resident got more than 150 such calls — one from an NRI in the US — within 24 hours, he lost his cool. After one of callers told him that his number was used as Kareena’s number in her latest film, Milenge
Milenge, he decided to watch it.
“In one of the scenes when Shahid Kapoor finds a book with Kareena’s number, my cellphone number is displayed on screen,” said Doke, who repairs and assembles computers.
“I even had girls calling me and asking for Shahid Kapoor’s number. I also got many obscene SMSes. Some callers proposed their undying love for Kareena, while other proposed marriage. Some also sought film roles,” Doke said.
He complained that some of the callers abused him and used foul language for not putting them through to the actress.
“On Friday night, I put my cellphone on silent mode. The next morning I found 100 missed calls. Now, I cannot distinguish between my business and these crank calls.”
Harassed, Doke approached the Wagale Estate police station the next day, but the police refused to register a complaint. “They advised me to switch off my cellphone for a few days and said the calls would soon stop. But my entire business depends on my phone, I can’t switch it off even for an hour,” Doke said.
S.G. Jawle, senior police inspector, said: “All we can do is register an NC, and draft a letter to the service provider about the goof-up. He will have to fight it out in the court.”
Doke does not know whom to approach for help.
“They [the filmmaker] should have at least tried calling on the number before using it in the film so that people like me don’t suffer.”
The film’s producer, Boney Kapoor, said he was unaware of any such problem.
“I have no clue how this happened. Everyone knows the film is old and when we used the number it must have belonged to no one. However, these decisions are taken by the creative team and the assistant directors, how can I be responsible for it? The assistant director who used the number does not even work for us anymore. It must have been a slip on his part.” When asked what they plan to do, the producer said: “All we can do is may be apologise to him. Next time I will inform my unit that if we are using any number to strictly use one belonging to one of the team members.”
