Want to call Kat? It’s a phoney

A Gurgaon woman is the latest victim of a ‘star phone number’ flashed publicly
Kat call
Women dream of trading places with Katrina Kaif, but for Shipra Seth, a Gurgaon-based software professional, it became a nightmare. A soft drink company printed her mobile number in one of their ad campaigns featuring Kat, and for four weeks, Shipra, 33, has been receiving thousands of calls and obscene text messages. The company’s TV ad being telecast since February, says, “Katrina ka number label ke andar.” When Shipra asked the firm to remove her number from the labels, the company said they didn’t provide the number and so can’t be held responsible if consumers dialled a wrong number. Shipra then collected labels sent to her by callers, in which her number was printed, and slapped a legal notice on the company.
Kaun banega number
Last September, Amitabh Bachchan obliged a contestant and gave his number on “Kaun Banega Crorepati” as 987730000. What ensued was people adding a random last digit to the nine-digit number. Puneet Bansal, whose number was 9877300000, complained of thousands of calls, even from abroad. Karan Wahi and Jagpreet Singh, having similar numbers, shot a legal notice to the channel.
Muscle tussle
Aamir Khan tattooed random numbers on his muscles in “Ghajini”, but that inundated the Mumbai-based Dr Surekha Verma with calls as one of those numbers was hers. Aamir apologised to her and got her a new phone connection. Later, Mumbai businessman Trilochan Singh sent a legal notice to Aamir for circulating his number through hoardings for the film. He sought `50 lakh in damages.
(Inputs from Ajay Sura)