Most newbies would be delirious with joy to know they have inspired fan clubs in the country and elsewhere.
But one-film-old Sidharth Malhotra seems to be made of a different mettle. Instead of appreciating the efforts of his two very young ardent fans, he apparently hit back at them in the most bizarre manner.
The story goes thus. As weird as it gets, we hear from sources that Sidharth has shot off a legal notice to two Delhi-based school students for an unbelievable amount of Rs 10 crore. The reason? Shikha and Swapnil Gupta had dared to start a fan club dedicated to their favourite actor.
The duo had apparently started their website as well as a fan page on social networking sites back in the days when Sidharth had been promoting his debut film Student of the Year. In fact, Shikha and Swapnil say that they had met up with the actor and duly informed him about their act, to which Sidharth had allegedly given his nod.
The cast of SOTY with Swapnil Gupta
Initially what they took as a prank turned out to be an angry note from their idol demanding a whopping compensation, a copy of which is in our possession. The distraught duo says, `We were not doing anything wrong. He knew about our fan club. We have shut the website now and my brother and I are so upset. We did it just out of our love for him. `
The siblings add that the newbie was apparently unwilling to share the popularity that the website had generated piggybacking on his name.
Pain and a sense of betrayal oozing out of their voice, the distressed siblings say, `He wanted us to transfer the URL of the site on his name so that he could run the fan club now. He did not even try contacting us before sending the legal notice. `
The website that has now been pulled down
A source close to the actor says that the kids had been selling merchandise on Siddharth's name on the site but refused to send a signed T-shirt to the actor's manager when she requested for one. `Sidharth thought they were misusing his name, ` adds the source.
The actor's spokesperson says, `Yes, we have sent them a letter from our lawyers and they have agreed to pull the website off. ` A bitchy birdie from Juhu says in jest, `In this case, the children deserve a punishment for idolising Sidharth!`
