Superstition drives Bollywood star cars

MUMBAI: The dark forces of superstition have always driven Bollywood. But now it transpires that three-fourths of the industry also drives on superstition. Take Shah Rukh Khan. Whether its his BMW or his other cars, they all have the number 555 on them.


Sanjay Dutt, on his part, confesses that all his vehicles — his latest Rolls Royce Phantom or Ferrari or even the Bugati Veyron that he intends to buy some day—have and will continue to have a registration number plate reading 4545. The star is clear that however much it costs him, the number plate must total up to nine and he likes it best if this is via 4545.

Dutt isn't alone in his quest for certain numbers. Kareena Kapoor, whose white Mercedes has the registration number 7887, says, ''All my car registration numbers must total up to three. I was born on September 21 and I like the number three. Saif wants his car numbers to total up to seven because he's born on August 16, and seven is his lucky number." Amitabh Bachchan's Toyota Land Cruiser has a registration number that adds up to two, just like his birth date, October 11.


Even 'Dabangg' villain Sonu Sood, who has three cars and is awaiting a fourth, wants a number one for all his new vehicles. Says the Bollywood baddie, ''When a series opens, No 1 is usually not given out. It's a VVIP number and is auctioned.'' Sonu, however, has managed to get a No. 1 for two of his new vehicles.

The obsession with a certain number doesn't come cheap but loaded Bollywood stars don't mind — they have been paying huge premiums to get themselves the registration numbers of their choice. ''We sometimes pay as much as Rs 3 lakh,'' says Sood, whose obsession extends to the Q 7 number plate. He reportedly spent Rs 3.5 lakh to get a Q 7 number plate for his Audi which belongs to the Q-7 series. While he refused to confirm this story, sources say that the actor once actually bought a Maruti in Haryana with the registration Q 7 just for the number plate and then resold the car because he had no use for it. This exercise cost him lakhs of rupees but what evidently mattered was that the actor's obsessive-compulsive streak was pacified.


Director Milan Luthria, who recently shot to fame with his 'Once Upon A Time' In Mumbai, has a black Skoda bearing the number 9211 like his earlier film 'Taxi 9211'. Soap queen Ekta Kapoor prefers all her vehicles to have numbers totalling up to three, six or nine a quirk which, according to screenwriter Rajat Arora, is rampant in Bollywood. Most of the industry wants its car number plates in multiples of three while four and eight are numbers everyone avoids, he says.

However, that's not entirely true. Ranbir Kapoor loves No. 8 on his car — he considers it lucky because his mother Neetu Singh was born on July 8. And finally there's Bollywood's offbeat actor Abhay Deol who has a Maruti jeep with the number AD (his initials) 420. Nice to know that superstition is sometimes accompanied by some tongue-in-cheek humour.