17 years of Taxi No 9211: How this John Abraham-Nana Patekar starrer made life HELL for a college girl in Mumbai

By Fenil Seta -

February 25, 2023 - 4:30 PM IST

The comic thriller, Taxi No 9211, was released on this very day, 17 years ago. Starring John Abraham, Nana Patekar, Sameera Reddy and Sonali Kulkarni, it tells the story of a rich man whose life is made hell by a cabbie on a day when he risks losing all his wealth. It was directed by Milan Luthria and worked due to the performances, hit music and strong writing. At the box office, it was a decent hit, collecting Rs. 19.58 crores in its lifetime.

17 years of Taxi No 9211: How this John Abraham-Nana Patekar starrer made life HELL for a college girl in Mumbai

On Taxi No 9211’s 17th anniversary, we bring to you an interesting trivia of how this Milan Luthria-directorial made life hell for a young girl in Mumbai. In the film, Jai Mittal (John Abraham) is looking for Raghav Shastri (Nana Patekar) after the latter steals his locker key. Raghav refuses to give the key to Jai as he’s upset with him. With no other option, Jai reaches Raghav’s house and requests his wife Sunita (Sonali Kulkarni) to share Raghav’s mobile number.

This is when Sunita gives out a mobile number and incidentally, it turned out to be that of a girl named Nessy John, who was then a Class 11 student from Mumbai. Believe it or not, several viewers noted down the mobile number and started calling Nessy, hoping Nana Patekar aka Raghav Shastri would pick up the phone. Some viewers texted ‘Raghav Shastri, chabi de de’ to Nessy!

As per a report in a tabloid a week after the release, Nessy got close to 90 calls from moviegoers and her phone began ringing before the release, that too the paid previews. Unfortunately, a few viewers made objectionable comments when they heard a girl’s voice at the other end of the call. She and her mother decided not to sue the producers of Taxi No 9211 as they wanted to avoid being tangled in legal problems.

Later, when director Milan Luthria heard about Nessy John’s woes, he apologized and regretted using a real-life mobile number.

Often, filmmakers ensure they use a fictitious number to avoid such problems. The TV show ‘CID’, for example, always had numbers that began with ‘1’. Some films also show characters rattling off cell numbers which are of just 9 digits. In Hollywood, for several years, numbers would start with ‘555’. Universal Studios had brought the rights to a number which they used in several films like Munich (2005), The Adjustment Bureau (2011), Definitely, Maybe (2008) etc.

A source said, “In Bollywood, some filmmakers have shared numbers of one of their crew members in the film, with consent. They are warned that they’ll receive hundreds of calls and messages. Many years ago, a popular actor gave out his office landline number in his slice-of-life comedy film.”

Coming back to Taxi No 9211, this writer happened to check who owns Raghav Shastri’s number in real life in the present-day. As per a caller-identification app, the present owner of the number is none other than Nana Patekar! And that’s not all. ‘Taxi service’ is also mentioned above his name! Whether it’s a prank done by some Taxi No 9211 fan or whether Nana Patekar has bought this number and also began a taxi service, we can’t tell!

Also Read: John Abraham on Pathaan entering Rs. 500 crore club: ‘Landmark moment not just for the team but also for the Hindi film industry’