Calcutta, Nov. 14: Cover your car windows with dark film at your own risk, celebrity or ordinary citizen.

Some 230 Calcuttans learnt this the hard way today when their cars, or the cars they use, were booked for covering windows with film that made it hard to see clearly what was happening inside. A spot fine of Rs 100 was clamped.

The police drive, aimed against crime and terrorism, provoked protests from celebrities who said dark glasses were a necessary shield against getting mobbed, especially in the suburbs.

Officers said the booked cars included those that were apparently used by actor-MPs Shatabdi Roy and Tapas Pal and singer Manna Dey, none of whom were in the vehicles at the time.

Shatabdi, who said she used the Scorpio but did not own it, sought an exception for celebrities. “I appreciate the reason behind the crackdown, but what happens to people like us?” she asked.

“I’m not speaking as an MP but as a celebrity. I have to travel around the city and to villages for my jatra shows. I get mobbed whenever my car stops at a red light or because of a traffic jam.”

Actors Rituparna Sengupta, Swastika Mukherjee and Jeet echoed her. Swastika demanded that celebs be allowed “slightly dark tinted glasses” and Jeet didn’t think a celeb having tinted car windows was “a major issue”.

Deputy commissioner (traffic) Dilip Banerjee, however, said: “Obstructing visibility violates Section 100 (II) of the motor vehicles rules.”

The drive comes after law student Chandrima Gupta was robbed at knifepoint inside a car with dark film on its windows and rear windscreen that she had hitched a ride in. The police also cited the rising terror threat. (Film specifications are given in a police advertisement below.)

Officers said that fines would be imposed not only for dark film but for anything blocking visibility. In the case of the lace curtains that many government vehicles use, policemen would have to use their judgement.

“The officer at the spot will have to assess whether he can see clearly through the curtain,” an officer said. “If the officer can’t, the fine will be imposed.”

Films with lighter tints, allowing 50 per cent visibility through the windows and 70 per cent through rear windscreens, are allowed. So the cars of chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee or city police commissioner Gautam Mohan Chakrabarti will not attract the fine, the police said.

Today the police used a lux meter, which measures luminance, in one part of the city while elsewhere officers used their “visual judgement”. The police, however, rued that the fine was not big enough to be a deterrent. “Car owners can easily afford it. The saddest bit is that the fine doesn’t increase with subsequent violations,” an officer said.

A car will not be fined more than once in a single day. “But the next day, if caught again, producing the previous day’s receipt will not work and a fresh fine will be imposed,” an officer said.

A senior officer said the driver of a Chevrolet the police had booked said Tapas Pal used it during his jatra shows. Pal said: “I travel in many cars that don’t belong to me, so I don’t know anything about it.”

The officer added that the driver of a black Toyota Innova had said it was used by Manna Dey whenever he came to Calcutta. Dey, attending to his ailing wife in the city, was not available for comment.

Saurabh Anchalia of Pace Auto Accessories on Bentinck Street, who fixes these films on car windows, said the sample shade cards showed the percentage of luminance. “If it’s more than 50 or 70 per cent, we’ll ask our customers not to use them,” he said.