Cops pour cold water on Deepika’s housewarming

But Deny Receiving A Complaint Or Penalizing Actor

Bharati Dubey & Nitasha Natu | TNN (THE TIMES OF INDIA; October 3, 2011)

Mumbai: Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone’s housewarming party ended abruptly early on Saturday after police landed up at her brand new pad at Prabhadevi. Though sources claim that the actor was penalized, the police have denied it.

An eyewitness, who was present outside the flat, told TOI, “A police patrolling van stopped outside the building around 3.15am. An officer went to Padukone’s flat on the 26th floor. We learnt that residents had called up the police control room, complaining of loud music being played at her party.”

Meanwhile, a crowd, including mediapersons, had gathered in the building compound.

“A little later, another police vehicle arrived and cops in plainclothes went up to Padukone’s apartment. What was strange was that the vehicles and cops did not exit from the side of the building where the crowd was. They left from the other gate of the building, probably to avoid being asked questions by mediapersons on whether the actor was penalized,” said the witness.

A few minutes after the cops had left the building, some of the actor’s guests too made an exit. These included actor Imran Khan, his wife Avantika, liquor baron Vijay Mallya, actors Abhay Deol and Preeti Desai. The guest list at the party included top notch with names like Amitabh Bachchan, Karan Johar, Priyanka Chopra, Siddharth Mallya, Shahid Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Riteish Deshmukh, Ranveer Singh and Genelia D’Souza. Bachchan even tweeted about being the oldest guest at the party.

However, an official from the Dadar police station told TOI that no complaint was received from residents. “Our team went to the building as a large number of people had gathered downstairs, including mediapersons, and we did not want a law-and-order problem cropping up. The music was loud and we asked them to turn down the volume. The actor co-operated with us and did as told immediately,” a senior official said.

Industry sources claimed that the actor was fined Rs 5,000 and that the guests at the party did most of the talking with the police to resolve the problem. The police, however, denied that the actor was penalized or any action was taken against her.

This is not the first time that the police have played party poopers at bashes organized by Bollywood actors.