Kannada and Telugu film actor Kriti Kharbanda has claimed that Air India staff misbehaved with her at the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) here last month.
In an open letter on her Facebook page, the actor claimed that the airline’s staff behaved “rudely” after she was found to be carrying luggage beyond the permissible limit in the last week of August.
The post has gone viral with over one thousand ‘likes’. The actor, who took over a month to post the open letter, said that she had waited to make sure she was not overreacting and that she took time to size up the situation before writing the post.
According to Kharbanda, she also faced problems approaching the higher authorities to bring the incident to their notice.
“I insisted for the duty manager to be informed as I wanted this resolved. I hoped the officer’s aggression would fade once the manager arrived. Unfortunately, my plea had fallen on deaf ears and the manager was not even summoned,” the post read.
“Madam, are you sure? It’s not possible for him to behave that way,” the officer in charge told her. Kharbanda added that the manager’s cabin was empty when she tried to seek help.
The staffer didn’t stop at that and went on to make sarcastic remarks about her, she claimed. But a colleague asked the said officer not to talk to Kharbanda as it was a minor incident that would be forgotten soon.
“I’ve decided to write an open letter to Air India. The consequences of whatever we do and say don’t simply go away. I am not always in the right, I’ll be the first to admit, but on that day, I surely and certainly was. I sincerely feel the indifferent, hostile and unprofessional behaviour of those certain Air India employees, particularly the check-in officer,” she said.
The actor also said she was contemplating making a complaint to the police. Air India officials could not be reached for comment.