Isolation of Priyanka Chopra[An article by Masand]

I never believed any stories of Priyanka Chopra being isolated in the industry. But a lot of stories going on in the media lately makes me think otherwise.

There was this news of her doing Karan Johar's next opposite Hrithik. Hrithik's party clearly denied the story.

What took the cake was Rajeev Masand's column in Open Magazine this week. Please read it and share your comments.

Guests who attended Dharma Productions CEO Apoorva Mehta's 40th birthday celebrations at Land's End Hotel in Bandra last Saturday have been sniggering at the snub Priyanka Chopra reportedly got from Karan Johar. At least two eyewitnesses say the actress gave a warm hug to her Dostana producer, who is believed to have returned the embrace, but didn't exactly stick around to chat.

Johar was seen spending time with Sonam Kapoor and Preity Zinta, but allegedly maintained a distance from Priyanka, who he is still supposedly mad at. Story goes that in the wake of all the negative publicity the actress has been receiving lately (mostly for her rumoured link-up with Shah Rukh Khan), Priyanka's publicists planted a story that the actress had been signed up for Johar's next production, an adaptation of the bestseller The Immortals of Meluha opposite Hrithik Roshan. The idea behind planting the story was to dispel rumours that actors and filmmakers were no longer willing to work with her. But Johar reportedly blew a fuse when the story ran, insisting that he didn't even have a script ready for the project, and was many months away from casting actors and actresses for the movie.

The filmmaker apparently has no immediate plans to work with Priyanka, lest it jeopardises his long friendship with SRK's wife Gauri. No wonder he wasn't thrilled with false stories claiming the contrary.