TV actors tell BT about fans-Shaleen

Why Rajesh Khera avoids the lift in his building

The kids in his compund don't let him take the lift unless he sprouts some dialogues for them. TV actors tell BT about some of their whackiest fans

BY GITA HARI

Fans are those species who are quintessential for the popularity of an actor but sometimes they can get so irritating, scary or pesky that they become a bane to the star. Recently, Daljit Kaur of Sony's
Kulvaddhu
became a victim of this fan madness, when she started recieving bouquets from an anonymous person. Let's hear it from some of our teletube stars about their whacky, scary or funny experiences.
Two women from UK got hold of Rahil Azam's number and kept calling him and saying crazy things. "Then I avoided taking their calls. Once my man Friday received it by mistake and they took my address from him. They came down to Mumbai and to my house but fortunately, I was in the building compound when I heard them enquiring about me. I signaled the watchman from far to say I did not live in this building and they went away," says Rahil." Essaying a vamp's role has its disadvantage as Arzoo Govitrikar discovered when she went abroad for a show with Kanchi Kaul while she was doing Sony's Ek Ladki Anjaani Si. Both of them went shopping and found a bunch of ladies ogling at them and remarking, 'Dekho apne souten
(Ananya) ke saath ghoomti hai,' referring to their on-screen relationship. Another vamp is Anchal Dwivedi, Kaveri of Saat Phere, who has viewers wanting to slap her and have her thrown out of the house in the serial. In keeping with his philanderous character in the same serial, Ashish Kapoor had housemaids refusing to work in his house suspecting his character. Another villain is Shaleen Bhanot, Karan of Saat Phere who had a bad experience in London. Recounting the incident, he says, "Once when I was at a London pub, four or five Indian families including women who were a little high recognised me as the villain in the serial. They insisted that I drink and dance with them. I had wine to appease them since I am a teetotaler but had a tough time getting away from there." The impish Monaz Mewawala has an interesting anecdote though she loves every bit of it, "Last Valentine's Day, I kept receiving bouquets of red roses every hour from a
guy who used to SMS me earlier. And then when he found I did not respond to his feelings, he had no other go but to stop hounding me."
Even kids can be quite pesky as Rajesh Khera found after he started playing the flamboyant role of Maddy in Jassi Jaisi Koi Nahin. He relates, "The kids in my building would not let me take the lift until I uttered my dialogues or spoke in the typical Maddy drawl." Fans can even copy your style which happened to Snigdha Akolkar when she played Shyamlie in Hare Kanch Ki Choodiyan, "Girls from my hometown Akola would identify with me and had their hair styled like Shyamlie." Munisha Khatwani encountered a fan in a traffic constable as she reveals, "Once I drove without a license and this cop recognised me from Vaidehi. He took me to the police station on the pretext of penalising me and called his entire family. He then shot my pictures with them and took my autograph before letting me go." Quite a whacky fan this!

star