When ordinary folks meet celebs

Brushing shoulders with royalty is a dream that most of us harbour since our childhood days. While in some cases they do come true — case in point Kate Middleton and Prince William, the rest of us have to be content feeding off gossip mags. Bollywood and cricket in India is considered on par with royalty and stars are worshipped like demi-gods. There are a lucky few who get the opportunity to  meet their favourite celebs off screen. Some take back memories, others walk away with momentos and still others share their experiences online. Reddit has put out a list of people who supposedly have come face to face with an Indian celeb, and have shared their experiences. How authentic these accounts are, we cannot say, but they do seem very close to the real thing. Read on to decide for yourself...

‘Nice guy Amitabh Bachchan’
Location Vijaya Bank branch in Wadala, Mumbai
We were on our annual holiday during the peak of the monsoon and accidentally got caught in the rain because dad wanted to visit the bank to sort some stuff out. A few minutes after we were rudely told to wait, he comes in and is immediately handed a towel for getting slightly wet from the short trip from his car to the front door. He spots us sitting in the waiting area dripping wet and starts raging at the manager and insists on us getting towels too and to stop giving people preferential treatment.

Kareena Kapoor
‘She has a ridiculous acne problem’
Location Fairmont Hotel in Dubai
A family friend who knows the editor of Stardust magazine asked us to join him and get to meet Kareena, who was there for some awards function. Seeing her without makeup makes me realise that A) she has a ridiculous acne problem and B) she has striking features, but I still think I’ve seen even more naturally beautiful girls out there. She was pretty okay, although I didn’t really talk to her that much because I was a bit...well...shy.

Ravi Shastri ‘Saw him speak rudely to a couple of folks’
Saw him in a hotel I was staying. Mega douche to all the people working there as per the staff. Saw him speak rudely at a couple of folks for not bringing hot towels. Also, saw him trying to avoid people in the lobby although nobody seemed interested in him.

‘Yuvraj Singh is a giant dou***copter’
Not me but two unrelated friends have interacted with Yuvraj Singh who is apparently a giant dou***copter.

Scene 1
Friend: (enters Shatabdi express and spots his seat, next to which is Yuvraj Singh and his luggage is on said friend’s seat (not on the luggage rack overhead) Excuse me.
Yuvraj: No autographs.
Friend: Your luggage is on my seat.
Yuvraj: (begrudgingly removes his bag and mumbles abuses)

Scene 2
Friend of friend is a flight steward and Yuvraj is on his flight.
Yuvraj: Ek orange juice le aa. (Get me an orange juice)
FoF: (gives him litchi juice by mistake)
Yuvraj: C*&%*#@ hai? Sunaai nahi deta?
FOF: Sorry I’ll just...
Yuvraj: (correcting him) sorry “Sir!”

‘He was actually a nice guy’
So, back when Yuvraj was in the US getting his chemo...  a few of us, went and met him. It was f&*%#ing cold @ 8 in the morning, this guy had the nerve showing up late. I mean, yeah... Sure, he was sick and all, He was throwing up all morning and all... But come on!! He made us wait in the cold for an hour, then finally came out and met us and talked to us for an hour or so, in the freaking cold weather... He was actually a pretty nice guy, He came out, talked to all of us... Stood in the cold (given that he was weak, was undergoing chemo... That’s a good thing!) till everyone had taken a photo with him, then  finally retreated back to his apartment for some well deserved rest.

Ajay Devgn ‘He had been smoking all along’
Location Bombay airport
We (wife and twin daughters five years old) were waiting for our international connection. I spotted him strolling around in front of a restaurant/cafe, pointed him to my wife (she loves Hindi music). She said, we should take a pic of him with our girls so when they grow up, so I reluctantly walk over to him and politely ask if I could take a pic of him with my toddlers. He refuses, points me to  a board that says ‘No photography’ which I had not noticed before. So I apologise and walk away. Dragging my toddlers away trying to explain why this man refused to take a pic. Right beside the ‘No Photography’ sign ‘No Smoking’, yep you guessed it, he had been smoking all along. Not a biggie, didn’t upset me much, but an incident that stuck with me.”

Shah Rukh Khan  ‘Guy smoked at least three cigarettes during 10 minutes...’
Location Ooty railway station
I met Shah Rukh Khan during the filming of the Chaiyya Chaiyya song. He seemed pretty cool. Guy smoked at least three cigarettes during the 10 minutes I saw him. Looked a bit aged even then.

Mandira Bedi
‘I tweeted a ‘hi’ to her and I was sitting next to her’
Location Globus Theatre, Bandra (W)
I was watching The Artist. Mandira Bedi comes and sits next to me. I didn’t know what to do. So I just tweeted a ‘hi’ to her and that I’m sitting next to her. After the movie we were in the elevator together as well. She checked her Twitter only in her car though. She replied and asked me what I thought of the movie. So yes, I don’t know if this counts as “meeting” her.

Palash Sen ‘Dude is an ultra mega a**hole’
He was to perform at our college fest. Refused to do so until he is upgraded to Presidential suite at Taj Hotel. Was already in Taj but not in the presidential suite. Was also pissed at the Honda Civic sent to pick him up at the airport and demanded a “BMW or higher class car” to travel around. This was when all his arrangements were communicated and confirmed beforehand with them. Rahul Bose and Kailash Kher visited during the same fest. Both stayed at the on-campus guest house and ate at the student mess. Really cool people. Another person says Palash Sen performed in his college a while ago too. He thinks too highly of himself. The fact is his band is out of the circuit and dead.

Anurag Kashyap
‘He was totally cool and straightaway asked me to pour myself a drink’
I hitchiked from Heidelberg (south of Germany) to Hamburg in the North. The journey was about 700 km. I had done this to watch Gangs of Wasseypur (1&2) as it was being screened in Hamburg and on Twitter he had announced that he was going to be there. Couldn’t get to talk much to him apart from smoking half a cigarette with him outside before he was rushed in and
had to conduct Q&A.

The next time I met him was in August 2012 in the midst of my exams. He had announced onTwitter again that he was in Amsterdam writing his new film (Ugly). I study and live in Delft (an hours train ride away from Amsterdam) so I pestered him on Twitter enough for him to let me come visit him. Went to his hotel ( I was two hours late from our pre determined meeting time). I was thinking he’d snub me and tell me it was too late (11 pm). But he was totally cool and straightaway asked me to pour myself a drink. I did and just watched him and Vikas Bahl (director of Chillar Party) talk about films for hours. I ended up crashing in his cottage. He was cool enough to offer that since his hotel was in the middle of nowhere and there was no public transport  out of there at 1 am. Dropped him to the airport in the morning and had a nice chat with him about my life and the fact that I want to become a filmmaker as well. Didn’t once make me feel like I was with Anurag Kashyap.

Rahul Dravid
‘Never saw such a humble and nice guy’
Location Bangalore airport
Never saw such a humble and nice guy. It is almost like talking to your friend or brother. No ‘celebrity’ gestures in the way he talks. Awesome guy. Respect for sure!

‘Shreyas Talpade has a lot of ego’
Have personally known Shreyas Talpade, he has a lot of ego. Have a friend who has worked with many celebs. Shah Rukh... pretty decent... Virat Kohli ... %#*hole. Sachin, the most  down-to-earth guy. Many others pretend to be nice, but are not.

Abhijit Sawant ‘Some Indian Idol something’
Super pretentious. Trying to hide himself in an effort to avoid getting detected. But no one was paying heed to him even after recognising.

Disclaimer: We don’t know how authentic these postings are but they seem like the real thing.

Compiled by Melissa D’Costa