Movies are a world of make-believe. Yet, we cannot ignore incidents when reel life inspired real life. With a six-member gang being busted for executing a 'Special 26' style robbery at a Nashik-based finance company, we list a few Bollywood potboilers that left

CHILLAR PARTY
Issue: Kids' campaign
This National Award winning children's film was about a kids' team waging a war against the municipal authorities to save a stray dog from being captured. Inspired by the film, a group of six kids in Ludhiana (Punjab) fought for their playing space in their local park. Incidentally, the name of the locality (Chandan Nagar) in both the reel and real stories was the same. While the little campaigners in the movie launched a chaddi march and had the last say, the real life Chillar Party undertook a signature campaign to generate awareness about the playground. Thankfully, as in the film, this real life mission was a huge success too.

APAHARAN

Issue: Kidnapping
Dramatic abductions have spiced up movie plots many a time. But the kidnap-and-murder of a eight-year-old boy in Patna (Bihar) in May 2009 by two teenagers sent shock waves across the country. The abductors claimed to have been inspired by the Prakash Jha flick on Bihar's kidnapping mafia to make easy money. Though the duo had initially planned to set the boy free after getting a ransom amount of Rs five lakh, they panicked and killed him. In 2007, Mumbai police cracked the kidnapping case of a 14-year-old boy, who admitted to have staged the entire drama to get money out of his strict parents after lifting the idea from the Akshay Kumar-starrer Khiladi.

SHOLAY

Issue: Suicide threat
A CRPF jawan posted in Bhubaneswar (Odisha) imitated a drunk Dharmendra by threatening to jump off a 100-feet water tank in September 2012. The only difference was that while the filmi Veeru wanted Mausi to give Basanti's hand in marriage to him, the one in real life alleged his seniors of mentally torturing him and refusing to grant him leave to go home. The fire brigade and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force personnel were pressed into service to bring him down. After almost 15 hours of drama, he climbed down when his seniors agreed to his demands.

DABANGG 2
Issue: Celebration of a cop's achievement
Two weeks ago, there were reports of a flamboyant revelry to celebrate the promotion of a station house officer in Sonipat (Haryana). This was likened to Salman Dabangg Khan's Pandey jee seeti antics. The little party within the police station had 250 people, including 15 cops. Apparently, there were female dancers too, shaking their booty like Malaika Arora Khan. This got the goat of social activists and prompted the top brass of Haryana police to order a probe into the incident. The state police also issued instructions to its team of nearly 50,000 cops that they should neither organise nor attend such parties.