masand gossip:-25 june2012

Ranbir's Bips Weekend

Eyewitnesses at a private party held for film stars one evening during the recent three-day IIFA Awards weekend in Singapore reveal that Ranbir Kapoor clearly appeared to be enjoying the company of a very determined Bipasha Basu, who was making no effort to hide her affection for her Bachna Ae Haseeno co-star. Ranbir, who was in Singapore minus his on-off girlfriend Katrina Kaif, was reportedly not in the least bit uncomfortable with the attention Bipasha was showering on him in full public view.

Bipasha, who last year famously split with John Abraham, her boyfriend of nine years, has since been linked with everyone from Rana Dagubatti (her Dum Maaro Dum co-star) and Shahid Kapoor to Ranbir, although the actress has firmly maintained that she's single and thoroughly enjoying the fact that she has no romantic commitments for the first time in years. Ranbir's Rockstar heroine Nargis Fakhri, meanwhile, who was also in Singapore for the event, was allegedly being hotly pursued by Shahid.

Speaking of Nargis Fakhri, it appears the actress (ha ha ha) who was recently in the news for having signed a three-film contract with Akshay Kumar's production company, is no longer in the good graces of the Khiladi star. Nobody seems to know exactly what went wrong (though there are many theories), but it appears the contract is now off.

While Akshay's Housefull 2 co-star Asin is expected to fill Nargis' shoes for the project that's meant to go on the floors immediately, there is some talk that Akshay has zeroed in on half-Brit-half-Afghan model Maasha now. The London-bred showstopper who moved to Mumbai recently and is represented by a local talent agency, was reportedly offered the same three-picture deal, which she is believed to have promptly signed.

With Katrina having shown the way, followed closely by Nargis, Amy Jackson and now Maasha, Bollywood is fast becoming the go-to destination for stunning foreigners with showbiz dreams. That few of them are even conversant in Hindi, or have no acting skills to speak of, isn't an obstacle. Like they say: it happens only in India.

This well-known scion of a leading Indian business family has always appeared more frequently on Page 3 than in the pink papers. Whether it was for his relationship with a pretty film actress or his reportedly wild party ways, he's managed to stay in the news despite reports of a crumbling business empire. Now the dandy young gentleman has said he's interested in acting… but not in Bollywood movies. He'll be taking off to Los Angeles to pursue opportunities in Hollywood.

On arriving at a five-star hotel recently for a magazine photo-shoot he had consented to, the 20-something-year-old kept pacing about the room with an unlit pipe sticking out of his mouth. When he continued to mock-smoke the pipe as if it was the done thing, a member of the photographer's team finally asked him what was up. It was in preparation for a party he was scheduled to attend. Too nervous to ask what sort of party required its invitees to know how to smoke a pipe, the assistant ended the conversation right there, still visibly puzzled.

Later during the shoot, which involved getting into a bathtub for a few pictures, the young hotshot apparently revealed to the magazine representative that he'd forgotten to bring spare underwear to the shoot. Since he wasn't about to get into the tub in his birthday suit, he asked for a pair of clean, fresh underwear to be bought for him to change into after shooting in his own skivvies. So an assistant was promptly rushed off to the nearest mall to pick up a pair of medium-sized CKs ("You can get me the exact same pair I'm wearing") for the brat.