How Mumbai police stations manage crowd of fans outside homes of superstars

A few hours after this photograph, it emerged – like it does on November 2 each year – the “sea” also included some thieves, who fled with at least 12 high-end cellphones of Khan’s fans.

“While several Bollywood actors stay in the city, Mannat, Jalsa (Amitabh Bachchan’s home) and Galaxy Apartments (Salman Khan’s residence) are places that have developed a hallowed status of their own. While tourists may not even be aware where other successful actors reside, if they come to Mumbai, they definitely want to visit these places,” an IPS officer said.

For local police stations, handling the surging crowd, especially on occasions like the birthdays of the actors, is an added responsibility. An officer said that especially at these three places – which now double up as tourist attractions – a thousand-odd people come to take photographs even on a regular day.

“However, on their birthdays or on assigned days where they generally meet their fans, the swell of the crowd is much larger. On these days, thieves or anti-social elements can make use of the crowd. Hence, our responsibility at such times is to ensure there are no crimes or law and order situation,” said DCP (Zone IX) Manjunath Singe.

However, such is the enthusiasm of the crowd that expecting them to follow basic security measures is a difficult task.

Ask Rajesh Devre, Senior Inspector of Bandra police station, about the difficulty in getting the crowd to pay heed. “Since the mobile theft outside Mannat during the actor’s birthday is a regular occurrence, we had deployed police vehicles making announcements… asking people to be alert of their belongings. However, the moment he came out to wave, those gathered forget about everything else and were enamoured.”

“It is around these 10-15 minutes when the crowd is in a frenzy that cellphones are stolen,” Devere said, adding that this happens though Khan himself has personal security personnel deployed at the bungalow in addition to the police personnel outside to handle the crowd. Sources, however, said that most of the actor’s personal security personnel usually remain inside the bungalow.

An officer said that this year, the crowd at Mannat was huge, since during the Covid-19 pandemic, people were not allowed to gather in large numbers outside Khan’s home.

However, generally, local police stations have to play the role of crowd managers all through the year.

An officer from Bandra police station said that usually, one of their officers keep in touch with the personal secretary of these stars. “Generally, a crowd gathers on days the fans feel the star may come out to wave or even spot him coming or leaving the bungalow. If the crowd grows, we check with the secretary if the star is home. If the actor is not in, the same is communicated to the people waiting outside so that they can disperse.”

An example of this is the pre-pandemic schedule of Amitabh Bachchan, who would come out to wave at his fans outside Jalsa every Sunday morning. If during a particular weekend he is not at home, the crowd would still gather and it would then come down to the officers from the Juhu police station to coordinate with the actor and his fans, an officer said.

However, it is not that the stars do not have their fandom in those dressed in khaki as well. In 2010, an inspector from the Bandra police station had caught the eye of his seniors after they found his photographs with Khan at almost all bandobast assignments.

While usually, officers on duty should be deployed outside the actor’s home, this officer turned out to be the only one always accompanying him. Later, the seniors found that the officer had a friend among the bodyguards accompanying the actor and would get information on where he would be making an appearance and ensure that he was present.