sajid khan fined for smoking at airport

Director sajid khan is in a belligerent mood these days. First, he ticked off the emcee at the Lions Club of SOL Bombay event (where he won the best director award) because 'he wasn"t doing his job properly" and now he has fought with the airport police when they fined him for smoking!

Dum maro dum

Talking about the incident Sajid says, “I was coming back from a show in Lucknow.

I am a smoker and on local flights I have to control the urge. The Lucknow to Mumbai flight got delayed by one and half hours.

By the time we landed I was desperate for a smoke, before collecting my baggage I stood in a corner and lit a cigarette. There wasn"t any No Smoking sign around. I took a puff when airport cops started shouting 'yeh No Smoking zone hai, put it off!"

“What happened next was quite funny," says Sajid. “They rushed up and insisted on me paying a fine of Rs 500. I told them I would pay but I would finish my cigarette since they were fining me in any case.

As I kept arguing and puffing they took me to meet their superior. I told him that I was willing to pay them Rs 1,500 but first they would have to show me a No Smoking sign in the area."

Sajid adds, “I think the superior recognised me because he told me, 'Mr Khan, you are a role model, why are you smoking in the airport?" I told them please don"t lecture; just tell me the fine I have to pay.

Then he asked for an apology letter. I told him that I haven"t ever done that and I won"t do so now! Though I don"t encourage smoking, I am unapologetic about it. Finally they said 'we don"t want a fine but have a cup of tea with us." I said okay if you let me smoke I will, and the matter got resolved."

Calling it quits

Sajid goes on to say that he will stop smoking the day it becomes illegal, “I"ve been smoking for 25 years and can"t stop. If it"s uncool to smoke I am not cool. Every man needs to have some vice and mine is smoking. But I would never smoke in a place where there are pregnant women and children."