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This story is from June 21, 2004

Pooja caught with SA babe in visa Rog

Ilene Hamann is the first South African to star in a Hindi movie. She makes her debut in Pooja Bhatt's Rog. But it's a tense time now for Ilene and Pooja as the Foreigners Registration Office in Mumbai has held the model for not having a proper work visa.
<arttitle>Pooja caught with SA babe in visa <i>Rog</i></arttitle>
<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Ilene Hamann (20), who lives in Cape Town and knows only three Hindi words, is the first South African to star in a Hindi movie. She makes her debut in </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="" font-style:="" italic="">Rog </span><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">after producer and Bollywood actress Pooja Bhatt saw her picture on the cover of a magazine.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">But it''s a tense time now for Ilene and Pooja as the Foreigners Registration Office (FRO) in Mumbai has held the model for not having a proper work visa.
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"On Friday, four men from the FRO came to my hotel room and asked me to come with them," said Ilene.</span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">Later, when Pooja arrived, they showed the visa papers, but the officers said that it was a ''J'' visa and they were not aware of what that was. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"When we called the ACP, he said it was top secret and you will have to come in person. That gave us negative signals. When we met them in person, they said it was the wrong visa; ''J'' visa is meant only for journalists," said Pooja. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">She then called up the embassy in South Africa who sent a letter, saying that the visa was proper and ''J'' visa was meant for the media, including actors. With all this, the shoot was cancelled and Pooja lost Rs 2.5 lakh. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"Today we could have sorted this but people from abroad on their own would have been troubled for no reason. We are just creating a bad name for our country," said Pooja. </span><br /><br /><span style="" font-family:="" arial="" font-size:="">"We told Pooja that a ''J'' visa doesn''t apply to actors. But we said we''d get back after we clear it from our side," said an FRO officer.</span></div> </div>
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