The 'Screaming Fans' Paid Rs 150 to Greet Tom Cruise at Mumbai Airport

When Tom Cruise landed in Mumbai in the first week of December 2011 for the premiere of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, the screaming crowd at the airport looked like the real thing. Indian media soon reported that it wasn't entirely: some of the "fans" cheering his arrival were allegedly paid participants, handed Rs 150 each to show up, scream, and wave.

Whether every screamer was on the payroll or just some of them, the story had the ring of an open secret about celebrity culture. Cruise was in India to promote the fourth Mission: Impossible film — in which Anil Kapoor played the flamboyant businessman Brij Nath — and the Mumbai premiere was a full-scale Bollywood-style event, with the Hollywood star walking the red carpet alongside Kapoor.

The film itself, directed by Brad Bird, went on to become the highest-grossing entry in the franchise to that point, and its India connection — a lengthy sequence set in Mumbai — made the visit more than a routine promotional stop.

The rent-a-crowd allegation, though, was the detail that lingered. It said something true about the machinery of stardom: the adoration has to look spontaneous, and when it doesn't occur spontaneously, there is always someone willing to arrange it for Rs 150 a head. Cruise, to be fair, played his part perfectly — waving, smiling, and giving the cameras exactly the arrival they had been paid to witness.