Mumbai: Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi found himself in an embarrassing situation in the run-up to 2012 as the city police played spoilsport at a venue where he was scheduled to perform on Saturday.
The party was organised in a private club located near Wilson Gymkhana, Marine Drive. Just as the chief guest, Oberoi, was about to get on stage and start his performance around 10 pm, police arrived at the venue and the show ground to a halt. The organisers were pulled up for not having the appropriate licences to hold music and dance performances.
Disappointed guests
Despite repeated pleas from the organisers to relent and let the celebrations continue, the police personnel did not budge. This put a dampener on the joy of scores of revellers who had braced for a long night of music and dance.
Incensed at the event cancellation, several guests demanded that the organiser refund their entry fee. A few of them even went to the extent of waylaying Oberoi's car as he tried to drive away from the venue. Tension prevailed for half an hour. It was only after the police intervened and assured the aggrieved guests of a refund that Oberoi was allowed to leave the premises.
"It was a Khallas [end]of a party for Vivek Oberoi. He will remember the party for years to come," a businessman present at the party venue said, recalling the actor's performance in Ram Gopal Verma's 2002 film Company, a movie based on the underworld.
Meanwhile, the police arrested 739 motorists in various parts of the city for driving under the influence of alcohol from Saturday night till the wee hours of yesterday. The arrested errant motorists, booked for drunken driving, were to be produced before various city courts later in the day.
With the latest arrests, the total number of cases booked in 2011 went up to 16,048. During the year, around 6,094 errant drivers were imprisoned while the licences of 6,037 drivers were cancelled.
