Indian fans often treat their favourite Bollywood stars like deities and a Mumbai-based fan of Sanjay Dutt’s films has just done the same thing.
Nishi Harishchandra Tripathi, who died aged 62 in January, made Dutt the receiver of all her bank savings and valuables.
The popular actor, though ‘deeply overwhelmed by the love and gesture of the fan’, has refused to accept the gift.
He reasoned that he could not receive the gift from his dead fan because he never met her.
Last month, Dutt was surprised when the bank informed him that Tripathi had made him the nominee of her savings and safe deposit locker valuables, the star's lawyer Subhash Jadhav told the BBC.
He said they had ‘no idea of the worth’ of her savings, as the bank had provided no such information.
“We are overwhelmed and deeply humbled by the gesture of the fan. I am not personally acquainted with her and never met her. So I waive my rights as a nominee of the account and the [safe deposit] locker,” Dutt was quoted as telling the bank by Jadhav.
Jadhav said they had communicated to the bank that they will “adhere to any legal proceedings necessary to transfer the money and valuables back to the [Tripathi's] family”.
The Mumbai Mirror newspaper reported that Tripathi died from a terminal illness and was survived by her 80-year-old mother and three siblings. The family lived in an apartment in an upmarket neighbourhood in Mumbai.
Dutt remains popular for his role as a lovable gangster in the Munnabhai movies and has dabbled in politics.
He also served a sentence for firearms offences linked to the 1993 Mumbai blasts which killed 257 people and injured 713. He was released from prison in 2016.
