Emulating ‘Pushpa’, Bengaluru Man tries to smuggle red sandalwood.

Inspired by the reel shenanigans involving smuggling red sandalwood in the Telugu blockbuster Pushpa Bengaluru man Yasin Inayatihullah landed in trouble when he was nabbed by the police for his trouble. A driver by profession, he was arrested attempting to smuggle the goods in his truck-a la Pushpa. He attempted to crossover from the Karnataka-Maharashtra border to Maharashtra when he was arrested by Maharashtra Police at Gandhi Chowk, Meeraj Nagar, Sangli district, and found to be ferrying sandalwood worth Rs. 2.45 crore in a truck valued at Rs. 10 lacs, both of which were confiscated by them. 

According to the Sangli Superintendent of Police (SP), Dikshit Gedam, they had acted in tandem with the forest officials in response to a tip-off received by them. This only goes to prove that what is good for the “reel” may not work out in the “real”. Inayatihullah might have felt that he was doing as well as his film counterpart when he coasted from Andhra Pradesh to Maharashtra, but his luck ran out when he ran into the real-life Bravehearts from Maharashtra Police. Just goes to prove that what works for the movies need not work as well in the world outside the dim lights of the cinema theatres. 

Though he tried to be too clever by half in placing boxes of fruit and vegetables on top of the goods and also pasting a sticker reading Covid-19 “essential products” for good measure, he couldn’t pull the wool over the eyes of the alert Mumbai police officials, unlike his movie counterpart. Twitter is naturally having a field day with posts galore about this hilarious example of real-life inspired by reel life episode gone wrong. Just goes to prove that the narrow and straight path of honesty and rectitude pays in real life and the crazy antics performed in movies for our entertainment should not be taken seriously.