Wannabe actors flee home, traced

Vadodara: Watching web series on over-the-top (OTT) platforms got so entrenched in their minds that two cousin sisters resorted to an escapade to fulfil their burning desire to make a career in acting.
Both aged 14, the girls living in Manjalpur, embarked on their journey to Bollywood hub Mumbai, all by themselves on Tuesday afternoon. But this few hours of adventure turned out to be short-lived as they were traced and reunited with their parents late in the night.
The girls were traced in Jhagadiya near Bharuch where they had returned from Vapi after getting a whiff of police being hot on their trail. But the drama did not end at Jhagadiya as they called up their parents and informed them that they have been kidnapped.
“The girls told their parents over the phone that they were very frightened and asked them to pick them up,” a police official said.
The kidnapping story was concocted as they feared getting a dressing down on returning home. With the help of Bharuch police, both girls were found and brought back to Vadodara.
“The girls told us that their only intention was to go to Mumbai and become actresses and that they were overawed by several web series,” the official added.
The cousins had gone to school to submit answer sheets but did not return home. When the worried parents checked at the school, they found their scooter parked outside, but the girls were not there. The parents then approached police to help trace them. When cops tracked their mobile phones’ locations, they were found to be in Vapi.
“We immediately sent a team from Vadodara and alerted Vapi police too. But they got suspicious and decided to return,” said a police official.
When police questioned them, they said that they took a GSRTC bus to reach Surat and from there they went to Vapi. As they suspected that the parents had started searching for them along with the police, the duo took a bus ride back to Jhagadia.