/> When the Dev D director Anurag Kashyap returned from London on Thursday night little did he know what the airport customs had in store for him.

Anurag recalls the 36-hour nightmare that followed. "As usual I had returned laden with DVDs of new films, all legally purchased. I dutifully went through the red channel and declared the DVDs. They said I'd have to pay duty.

I had been bringing back DVDs from England on each trip. This had never happened before. Anyway I was fine with paying duty.

However since I didn't have the money with me I told them I'd return the next morning with the money, and left."

Anurag's actual nightmare began on Friday morning when he reached the Mumbai international airport with the duty-money.

"They refused to give me back my DVDs! And not just the DVDs, my entire luggage had been confiscated. When I asked them the officers to explain they told me to see the Commissioner.

When I went to him he didn't even acknowledge my presence, just grunted and dismissed me. I was asked to come back after a couple of days."

Shocked bewildered and humiliated Anurag was tempted to pull rank. "I had never before used my name or my influential friends' names to get work done. But this was a very Kafkaesque crisis. I had no idea why my luggage was confiscated."

Anurag decided to contact a couple of friends. On Friday evening his luggage was retrieved.

"But only after I gave a written undertaking that each and every one of the 65 DVDs I had brought back from London was nether pirated nor pornographic. Can you imagine, would I bring back porno and pirated stuff? Have these people lately checked the DVD libraries in Mumbai?"

Anurag was only too happy to get back his precious DVDs. "I live and die for my DVDs. They are the only valuable possession I have. But since when has it become illegal to bring DVDs from abroad when they are legitimately purchased and I'm happy to pay the duty?"

Though he's disgruntled with the way the Commissioner behaved, the director gives a clean chit to the other officials at the airport. "They were doing their job politely. But what was the need to harass me when I had done nothing unconventional?"