Cash crunch in B-town

They may be some of the richest people in the country, in Mumbai and surely in Bollywood. But when it comes to cash, they hardly have it at their disposal. Recent proof came in the form of Janhvi Kapoor, who had to borrow money from her driver to give a street kid.

“We have seen a lot of big and small film stars being asked for money by beggars. And though they have wanted to help them, they do not carry the money themselves. Perhaps they are scared to ask for money from their Men Fridays or staff, and hence they prefer to scoot, as we saw recently in the case of Malaika Arora. While Ranbir was looking around for his Man Friday when asked for money, Aryan Khan sweetly ruffled the hair of the beggar kid, and Salman Khan went a step ahead and hugged the kid who asked him for money,” says a paparazzo.

One can recall that while Abhishek Bachchan and Goldie Behl were travelling in a boat from Versova Jetty to Madh Island, they didn’t have cash on them to pay at the end of the journey. The man in charge of the money collection let them go because they only had credit or debit cards.

Mahesh Bhatt recalls how not having cash created a problem for him during the 2005 floods, as he was facing a food crunch at home. “I had gone to the JW Marriott Hotel at Juhu and asked for bread. They had the bread, but their machine was not working. So, they could not accept cards. And despite having money, I could not pay,” says Bhatt.

—Sanskriti Media