when Shakti Kapoor accosted by security guards

While some actors prefer to go unrecognised and often even resort to disguises to escape public attention, there are others

Bollywood villain Shakti Kapoor was in for a bit of a rude shock on Tuesday morning while shooting for Anees Bazmee’s No Problem at Film City.

Shakti, who plays a Sikh in the climax of the film, was headed for the sets in character when he was suddenly accosted by security guards. “I have grown a beard for this role. At around 11am, I was adjusting my turban and walking from my vanity van towards the sets when two guards ran up to me and asked me who I was. Obviously, they hadn’t recognised me.”

Surprise turned to dismay and then anger, as Shakti realised that neither of them recognised him despite him having done so many films in his long career.

In what appears to be retaliation, Shakti decided to provoke the guards. He told them that he was a visiting sardar and wanted to meet the film’s lead actors, Akshaye Khanna and Anil Kapoor. He even threw in some choice Punjabi abuses to really look the part. Not that the guards were in any doubt.

“At this point, they asked me to leave the sets. I had a big verbal showdown with them and they became very aggressive with me,” Shakti adds. He’d done what he had set out to, but now the situation was threatening to get out of hand.

“By then, bahut hungama ho chuka tha. I thought that enough is enough,” he says. But before he could call the crew members of No Problem to enlighten the guards, a few bystanders came to Shakti’s rescue. “They told the guards that I was Shakti Kapoor, the actor, and asked them how they could possibly commit such a faux pas. There were around 40 junior artistes dressed as sardars on the sets that day - all unknown faces - but the guards didn’t seem to have a problem with any of them. Why me? I still haven’t figured that out,” says the actor.