``Arre Shah Rukh kidhar gaya?'' quizzes Rajesh Jadhav, sitting on the tracks outside Kurla station. Responding to his call is no matinee idol, but a brown donkey with a red bandanna around his neck who walks past unselfconsciously with a load of debris on his back.

If one went by names, roughly half of Bollywood would be engaged in cleaning Mumbai's filthy railway tracks. Hired by the railways from private contractors in an annual muck-clearing exercise, these pack animals with their fabled load-carrying abilities go where no machine can go.

They balance heavy burdens along with star names: a pair of twins are called Karan-Arjun, there is a Rekha, a Jackie, Akshay, Sanjay, Babita, and even a Rangeela. A temperamental donkey is named Mental, while run-of-the-mill Lalita, Sharada, Radha, Mala, Baba, Vakil and Dagdu flaptheir ears and trudge past with their loads.

Two donkeys spared of the name-keeping ritual are to be named Bade Miyan and Chhote Miyan, for their contrasting sizes. Meanwhile, a labourer is busy tying together the hooves of another pair of twins, Seeta and Geeta. ``They have a habit of running away,'' he grins.

However, the animals have no starry airs and work hard in exchange for some grass and rice husk. Each donkey carries roughly 25 kilos of soil and debris from the tracks in one trip.

Assisting forty labourers in clearing the tracks between Mankhurd and Kurla stations are an equal number of donkeys. Labourers scoop the earth and load it onto two gunny sacks balanced on the animals, who are then led to a vacant plot some distance away.

During this process, which takes up to four months with eight-hour workdays, contractors are paid Rs 25 for every square foot of earth removed. The debris consists of soil, urban trash including glass pieces, disposable containers and of course, plasticbags.

``The animals are used for muck removal operations in certain places which are unapproachable by road, and where muck-removing trains cannot be brought in as they block tracks for a few hours,'' says Pankaj Malviya, Divisional Railway Manager, Western Railway. He said the muck on railway tracks was generated during engineering work.

The animals have been at it for, well, donkey's years, say railway officials. However, they also get their share of screen time when they are hired by Bollywood for raising guffaws. Workers proudly mention how one donkey was even worshipped by Shakti Kapoor playing a politician in the flop Allah Meherbaan to Gadha Pehalwan three years ago. They were part of the double entendres in Dada Kondke's Ram Ram Gangaram. Last month, some of them shot for an unnamed Hindi film with Ashok Saraf at Mankhurd.