Producer Madhu Mantena detained for swine flu

Mumbai, May 4 (IANS) 'Ghajini' producer Madhu Mantena was quarantined at the Mumbai airport briefly over swine flu fears, before it was found to be a false alarm.

'Fortunately mine is just an ordinary flu, nothing swinish about it,' Mantena, who had to cut his London trip short after his cold got worse, told IANS.

Mantena was in London with director Abbas Tyrewala for the pre-production of '1-800-Love'. Leaving the director to attend to the nitty-gritty, Mantena rushed back home Sunday in a panic.

'Unfortunately, given the current swine flu scenario the common cold is not considered common any more. For a while I continued to function normally. But then the cold grew into headaches and a fever,' he said.

That's when he pressed the panic button.

'In the current scenario any man sneezing and wheezing on the street is considered potentially deadly. It's a suspicious world out there. And if you are a brown-skinned sneezer on Oxford Street you're in serious trouble. At the moment a bearded guy with a gun is considered potentially less serious than an ethnic guy with a cold.'