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Did an Aishwarya fan plant Madhuri hoax?

Aseem Chhabra

It allegedly started as something between two desi movie fans -- one an admirer of Madhuri Dixit, the reigning queen of Bollywood for most of the 1990s and the other of Aishwarya Rai, a relative newcomer who hopes to become the Hindi film industry's top female movie star. And it snowballed into a rumor that had Madhuri's fans worried for quite a while.

A couple of weeks ago, a rumor that Madhuri had met with an accident in Chicago while driving her BMW had fans furiously messaging each other in cyberspace. There was shock, disbelief, and a lot of praying till the fans discovered the story was was a hoax.

One fan, 'sup dat', posted this message on one of the many Madhuri fan clubs run by yahoo.com: "Nothing bad can happen to our Madhuri. God is with her." He came back to add in another posting, "May the worst happen to the person who spread the rumour in the first place."

By all indications the rumor began on January 21, when one 'PunjuKURI' posted the following message that read, "I just got an e-mail from somebody who was watching the TV Asia news; Rohit Viyas, the spokesman, reportedly said that Madz was in a car accident! She was driving her BMW and had a collision with a jeep near a tunnel. She was in a critical condition and the jeep driver only had minor injuries. Both r in the hospital and the fans are outside the hospital. Fanz hope that the "Ek, do teen girl" is better. I hope the best for Madz too!"

Going by her Yahoo profile, 'PunjuKURI' is "single, not looking" and is a Hindi film fan.

TV Asia, a desi cable channel run by Asia Star Broadcasting, Inc does not have a spokesman called Rohit Viyas. If there is someone with a similar name, it's Rohit Vyas, the director of news operations.

"This report is false," Vyas told rediff.com, adding the channel would never have reported the story without verifying it.

Vyas added he had no idea why 'PunjuKURI' or her mysterious friend claimed that the story appeared on TV Asia.

'PunjuKURI's' posting worried some Madhuri fans who are still to come to terms with the actress's quiet marriage to Dr Shriram Madhav Nene, a Los Angeles-based cardiac surgeon. But most fans refused to believe that she had been injured.

An anonymous posting on madhuri.com provided reassurance thus: "hi, dont belive these rummers madhuri is haveing a good time nothing wrong happed, thanks for careing."

Another anonymous posting on Filmfare Online reads: "I can't believe that. I don't think so. someone must be an anti madhuri have spread some rumours on her. if it was true news there would have been chaos...."

But speculations continued. Soon the report attributed to TV Asia itself began to appear on web sites and discussion lists. The Mad About Madhuri Page carried the report as did the South Asian Journalists Association discussion list.

At the time the 'report' claimed that Madhuri was in Chicago, the actress was actually promoting Pukar, her new film in Bombay.

The report states that the accident occurred near Madhuri's Chicago home. The actress has no home there. Her husband lives in the Westwood section of Los Angeles. Again the report describes her husband as "a renowned Chicago doctor". Dr Shriram Nene is a resident trainee at the University of California, Los Angeles's School of Medicine -- many thousands of miles away from Chicago.

In addition, according to Vyas, TV Asia has neither an office nor any reporters in Chicago who could have filed such a report.

Madhuri's siblings in the US, were not available for comment.

However, Dr Nene confirmed that the story was not true.

"To be honest with you, I have no idea (how the rumor started)," he said. "I don't really follow them (the rumors). We all know the truth. ( Madhuri's) new movie is coming out and she is preparing for that."

He added that he had no reaction to the report attributed to TV Asia, since he had spoken to Madhuri a little before he heard the rumor.

Later, on January 28, PunjuKURI retracted her first message and said she had actually got an e-mail in this regard from an Aishwarya fan.

And two days later, on January 30, Filmfare Online said it had blasted "yet another rumour to smithereens... We are delighted to inform MD fans that this bit of news is absolutely false."

Amen to that.

Next: Hunt on for man who abducted teen

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