Actor Varun Dhawan was fined on Thursday for violating traffic rules, after a picture of him leaning out of his car on a busy street and taking a selfie with a fan appeared in an English tabloid.
The Mumbai Police through their Twitter handle also issued a stern warning, and the actor tweeted an apology. But his fans responded with outraged tweets.
The picture showed a fan in an autorickshaw taking a picture of Mr. Dhawan, whose car had pulled up alongside her auto. Another picture showed the actor leaning out of his window and taking a selfie with her.
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An e-challan was sent to Mr. Dhawan’s registered address with the Regional Transport Office. “We fined Mr. Dhawan ₹600 for riding without a seatbelt and leaning out of the window. He paid the fine,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Amitesh Kumar.
The official handle, @MumbaiPolice, tweeted the picture, and said, “These adventures surely work on D silver screen but certainly not on the roads of Mumbai! U have risked ur life, ur admirer’s & few others. V expect better from a responsible Mumbaikar & youth icon like U! An E-Challan is on d way 2 ur home. Next time, V will B harsher (sic).”
Mr. Dhawan tweeted an apology from his official account, @Varun_dvn: “My apologies. Our cars weren’t moving since we were at a traffic signal and I didn’t want to hurt the sentiment of a fan but next time I’ll keep safety in mind and won’t encourage this.”
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The police replied: “Quite a galactic coincidence for the photographer to be on the same signal to capture your gesture, in a good intent nevertheless risky. Leaning out even in a stationary vehicle can be distracting for others considering your popularity. Glad you took our message in d right spirit.”
The police’s tweets received a mixed reaction. The tweets sparked off a war of words between those supporting the police’s action and those opposing it. Snide references to other actors were also made, with one user tweeting a picture of Salman Khan riding a bike without a helmet, to which another user replied jokingly that Mr. Khan’s driver was in fact riding the bike.
While the police’s first tweet was retweeted over 7,000 times, the second admonition received more than 1,000 retweets. Mr. Dhawan’s apology was retweeted nearly 3,000 times.