Calcutta, July 13: In a TV commercial, a taxi driver shows a passenger a Kareena Kapoor video after failing to fish out a one-rupee change. On Amherst Street this afternoon, a cabbie in a similar situation allegedly hurled abuses instead.

The latter was arrested for abusing two women — a mother and daughter who stuck to their demand for a one-rupee change. The women said it was “no longer about money… but a matter of dignity”.

In the TV commercial for a telecom service provider, the taxi driver pacifies the young passenger by showing him a video of the Kareena-Aamir Khan song Zoobi Doobi from 3 Idiots.

No one knows if the commercial that advertises video downloading at Re 1 could have saved the Calcutta cabbie as well.

Homemaker Meena Ray, 50, and her daughter Mamata, 30, had boarded the taxi from SN Banerjee Road this afternoon for their home on Amherst Street.

“On reaching our destination, I gave the driver a Rs 50 note. According to the meter, we had to pay Rs 46.60 and I decided to round up the figure to Rs 47. He gave me two one-rupee coins. When I told the driver he was supposed to give me one rupee more, he started using filthy language,” Meena said.

She alleged that when her daughter protested the driver’s misbehaviour, he was “about to hit her”.

“I was shocked when some onlookers advised us to leave the change, as if we were at fault!” Meena said.

When she threatened to take him to police, the driver allegedly said: “Do whatever you want.”

He had either not considered the fact that the Amherst Street police station was nearby or he did not expect the women to actually call the police.

Mamata walked to the police station and returned with an officer. The driver was arrested for verbal abuse. He got bail from the police station after the women left.