Soumyadipta Banerjee / DNA

• The star spontaneously gives a  cameraman the amount he lost while filming her interview

Mumbai, Oct 13: Actor Shilpa Shetty may underplay the incident but there is a cameraman who is full of gratitude for the star. Abbas Sheikh, a freelance cameraman with a production house, was shooting an interview of the actor at a suburban five-star hotel when his pocket was picked.

Abbas says, “There were a lot of people at the hotel that day; the room was packed to capacity. As we were running out of time we decided to shoot a quick short interview with her right there. After we wrapped up, I found that my purse was missing from my back pocket.”

Naturally, he raised an alarm immediately and urged the hotel authorities to ensure that the people present in the room were searched. He also wanted to lodge a complaint with the police. “But a lot of people had left before the security personnel could get into action and I realised that it was foolish of me to think that I would get my purse back. I didn’t have the money to return home and so I would have had to borrow money from my colleague,” he says.

By then Shilpa realised that something was amiss. She asked her staff to inform her about what had happened. “When I was told about the incident I really felt bad for the man. I decided that since it happened during the shooting of my interview, it was my duty to help him,” says the actor. She immediately took out Rs 1,500 from her purse and gave it to the cameraman.

“It was a very small amount and I was not ready to take the money from her. She forced me to do so. I have been shooting interviews of stars for four years now yet I found the whole thing very touching,” says Abbas.