Bad Boys of Bollywood | DesPardes.com

APRIL 10 - Call it mere coincidence or attitude, but most Bollywood film stars in legal tangles are star-kids or if they aren�t, they are stars.

Look at the John Abraham accident at Khar in Mumbai last Saturday night. The Dhoom actor was racing his Yamaha sportsbike on a road full of potholes� Add to that two other bad boys on a cycle (a cycle is to carry just one person)� and crash! What John managed to avoid in Dhoom happened here.., bad accident� While the other two got away with minor injuries� John finds himself in the hospital for much longer.

If John is still the good boy, there are others who aren�t. These kids grow up basking in the fame, wealth and power of their parents. The talent of the parents may or may not rub off on them, but their haughtiness does - several times over. No matter what they do, daddy dearest will come to their rescue!

Barring ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh�s son Vivek Singh who died in a car crash allegedly after drunken driving, most star kids have taken on the law and have been defended by their family. Feroz Khan, Salim Khan, Raaj Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan have stood up for their children.

Bachchan even sent money to the photographer to buy new equipment who alleged that Abhishek Bachchan had destroyed his camera while shooting in New Delhi for Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai. Abhishek, who is known never to get into spats, had apparently gone in defense of the producer�s sister when a fight erupted during the shooting on Delhi streets and in the ensuing fracas the lensman�s lens was broken. A case was filed and later withdrawn when the courteous Bachchan Sr compensated.

Moving on to Salman Khan, popularly known as the brat, he courted woe for the first time when he killed endangered species of animals at Jodhpur along with Saif Ali Khan, Sonali Bendre, Tabu, Neelam, and Satish Shah. Salman Khan�s name has been featured as the prime accused in this case.

After reaching Mumbai, Khan was questioned over the Chori Chori Chupke Chupke case where film financier and producer Bharat Shah was also implicated. Bharat Shah is no star son, but has had his share of brush with the law after the police said that they had evidence that Shah in connivance with the underworld was proving a threat to Bollywood celebrities.

Khan�s name is being discussed in police circles as one who has been having occasional contacts with the underworld too.

And now with the Land Cruiser accident, which killed one person, Salman Khan who never even owned the vehicle, nor even has a driving license is in a big mess. And is it a co-incidence that he is the son of noted writer Salim Khan?

Salman�s comrade in arms in the black buck killing case Saif Ali Khan has also not been without his share of controversies. Once Khan and his wife Amrita �Mard� Singh showed their bravado to journalist Kanan Divecha and bashed her up after Divecha wrote an interview with Amrita Singh where she discussed her affair with Amitabh Bachchan. Khan, the son of the Nawab of Pataudi Mansur Ali Khan and actress Sharmila Tagore had no remorse in beating up a woman. Saif Ali Khan also was in the eye of a storm when gay activist and journalist Ashok Row Kavi accused the former of beating him up for comments that he made on television against the junior Nawab.

Another Khan in disarray was Feroz Khan�s son Fardeen. The cops from the anti-narcotics cell were lying in wait for a young singer turned actor who was quite close to a famed Mumbai politician�s producer daughter-in-law. His Opel Astra was to reach a spot and a banned substance was to be exchanged for money. Unfortunately Khan�s Opel Astra also stopped at the same spot an hour earlier and he was nabbed � also for purchasing cocaine. Khan somehow managed to get a lot of sympathy the moment he confessed to his crime.

And from sniffing �Coke�, he moved on to guzzling Pepsi and promoting Provogue and hiked his price by a crore of rupees after the incident.
We move on to Sanjay Dutt. If there has to be someone as �bad� as Salman Khan, Dutt could be the candidate. Dutt has had several brushes with the law. He was into drugs and later went abroad to get cured. Dutt�s actor cum politician father Sunil stood by his son. Later Sanjay Dutt was involved in one of the biggest problems that a filmstar has faced when he was named as one of the co-accused in the 1993 bomb blasts case. Dutt also has been in trouble for conversations with the underworld and for even beating up auto rickshaw drivers who dared to overtake his vehicle at night.

Luckily for Sanjay, Sunil Dutt who has a tremendous goodwill - the best any film star ever has � has always come out in defense of his son.
Puru Raaj Kumar, son of Raaj Kumar, under influence ran his vehicle over six people. His father who was in New Delhi called up the Bombay police and got his son out on bail in no time. Never mind if some CRPF men had been witness to the whole accident.

Raaj Kumar was also in the Bombay police before entering films. And it is not that Kumar�s record was clean. The actor had been arrested for allegedly killing a man who teased him with Nargis during the shooting of his film Mother India. Mehboob Khan had acquired special permission to let Kumar shoot for his film. After a while even Khan lost hope and Raaj Kumar who leaves home in Mother India, never returns.

And then there are the ones who get into trouble � never mind if they are star kids or not. Mamta Kulkarni got into trouble for her topless trysts in a film glossy. Ditto with Sonali Bendre who was charged for indecent exposure. Tanuja also got into trouble when she ran over a person killing him on the spot.

Nadeem Saifi�s name was included as a conspirator in the Gulshan Kumar killing, but nothing has been proven against the music director. Gulshan Kumar�s son Bhushan Kumar was recently arrested for reckless driving. Luckily he didn�t maim anyone.

Finally, we have the only non-star son in Bollywood who breaks the law often - Aditya Panscholi. Panscholi has been arrested for rash and drunk driving. His car knocked down two police personnel on a motorbike when he was under influence. The actor had earlier been arrested for slapping a constable in 1996. His earlier girlfriend Pooja Bedi yelled from rooftops that even as he was having an affair with her, he had raped her maid. He was also accused by Anil Kapoor for threatening him once. Panscholi admitted that he had given threatening calls to Kapoor to prevent him from acting in Subhash Ghai�s film Trimurti as he wanted to do that role.

Despite all this, the stars continue to give a tough time to the cops. As journalists covering cinema now comment their "job was now as good as covering the crime beat."

The views expressed herein are the writers' own and do not reflect those of despardes.com

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