The Mumbai Police announced this week that security around several Bollywood actors, directors and producers was going to be cut back and in some cases discontinued . The India Express has this quote from an IPS official ''We were providing security to around 40 Bollywood celebrities.But now we have trimmed the list and have brought it down to around 15 personalities against whom there are genuine threat perception. A police source added this comment '' A lot of manpower gets wasted in providing security to celebrities, and it is at times unwarranted. An audit was recently conducted and security of over 20 personalities have been nixed or trimmed.''
There were 25 people who had their police security completely withdrawn. The list included director Rajkumar Hirani , director Farah Khan , producer and director Vidhu Vinod Chopra and producers Ali and Karim Morani. About the only ones who didn't get a status change in their police detail were some of the icons of Indian entertainment. Lata Mangeshkar, Dilip and Amitabh Bachchan all get 24 hour security and a police escort.
Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan are the complicated exceptions on this list. The actors are having their police protection reduced as theer is no longer deemed to be a creditable threat against either actor. Both actors were in the news for making comments about tolerence. In multi-ethnic India, tolerence, especially coming out of the mouth of a Bollywood actor, can be a dicey word to utter. According to the Times of India Aamir Khan posted these comments on his Facebook page ''I completely endorse the move by Mumbai police to reduce security around me.' The police personnel can be put to better use in securing the city. If and when the Mumbai Police feel the need to increase my security, they will. I trust them completely". The threats against Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan aren't deemed relevant anymore and the police presence around the actors is reduced both Khans still receive two constables who work in shifts as protection.
