An April Fool prank pulled off by an FM channel in Bengaluru created 'panic’ atop historic Nandi Hills on Sunday morning.
Around 6,000 plus 'fools’ gathered on Nandi Hills, situated 54 km from here in Chikkballapur, believing the FM channel, and hoping to catch a glimpse of top Bollywood stars. The channel had announced all through last week that stars including Priyanka Chopra, Bipasha Basu and Katrina Kaif will be landing atop Nandi Hills on Sunday to inaugurate the hilltop studio of the FM channel.
There were many families, college students, software engineers, couples and even villagers from Chikkaballapur and Shidlagatta situated close to the Hill. Needless to say, no star landed there; only the ‘fools’. The only beneficiary of the prank was the Horticulture department which made Rs 70,000 in three hours for entry and parking of vehicles.
Fans from Bengaluru, Tumkur and Mysore started gathering atop Nandi Hills as early as 3 am on Sunday and they waited on the road in their vehicles for the gates to open. When the gates were opened at 6 am, the Horticulture officials, who are caretakers of hilltop, were surprised to see a large crowd in the early morning. But their excitement withered after the officials clarified that no such descending of stars was happening.
As the sun rose, the crowd started swelling. On a regular Sunday, the hilltop, also known as Nandi Durga, receives close to 4,000 visitors. Since a large number of visitors turned up in a short time, there was traffic chaos on the Hills. Police had a tough time managing the crowds.
Murgod, Special Horticulture Officer at Nandi Hills said that for any kind of function on Nandi Hills, special permission was to be taken in advance from the government.
“In fact, we started getting inquiries about film stars landing here, since Satuday evening. We also checked with the police, but they too had no such information. It was only after talking to the crowd today, we realised it was a prank,” Murgod said.