Ever since news about his brawl with the South African NRI businessman Iqbal Sharma and his father-in-law Raman Patel broke out, Saif Ali Khan has been saying that CCTV footage of the scuffle at the five-star restaurant of the downtown hotel in Mumbai would prove his innocence.
Saif was dining at the restaurant with his girlfriend and co-star Kareena Kapoor, her sister Karisma, actress Amrita Arora and her husband Shakeel Ladakh along with producer Bilal Amrohi, when the incident happened.
However, the fact remains that there is no CCTV footage which has captured the brawl. Inspite of the terror attack that took place in the same hotel in 2008, apparently there are no video cameras installed in the particular restaurant in order to respect the privacy of guests.
Meanwhile, many in Bollywood have come in support of Saif on Twitter. Amrita Arora who was present at the location of the tiff, said, “It’s sad that celebs become victims of other people wanting their 15 minutes of fame. Just for the record, if the people concerned were assaulted so badly, how come they were fit enough to be on TV giving interviews all day?”
“There is something amiss in this incident and I’m sure the facts will come out soon. It’s very unlike Saif to hit an elderly man or provoke a fight,” quipped jewellery designer Farah Ali Khan. Filmmaker Kunal Kohli tweeted, “Saif explained the whole incident on TV just now. It’s unfair to tilt opinions against anyone just because he’s a star.”
Saif as well as the NRI South African businessman, both claim that the opposite party hit them first. Though Bollywood PR guru Dale Bhagwagar has never worked with Saif, he said, “Saif has the class of a gentleman. I’ve heard that the NRI guys used words like ‘whores’ and ‘prostitutes’ for his actress friends and provoked him to argue. Inspite of such filthy language, Saif is learnt to have only argued and not raised his hand, till the NRI’s father-in-law is said to have suddenly hit him on the neck. I’m told, that is when he reacted in self-defense.”
“Some guys refuse to play it ‘saif’! What to do? Agent Iqbal may help Agent Vinod break records, not noses,” joked quirky writer Shobhaa De about the South African NRI businessman Iqbal Sharma’s broken nose.
