Flashback:the john-katrina affair?

A blow-by-blow account on Katrina changing version on John Abraham

Katrina Kaif's changing versions on John Abraham have been the subject of discussions over the past few days.

It's an unwritten code between a journalist and his/her subject. An off-the-record conversation between them shall always be honoured. But if one breaks the pact, the other is not obliged to abide by it either.

A few days back, HiTLIST featured the news of the SMS exchange between John Abraham-Katrina Kaif and how Salman Khan was furious at the discovery of it. There has been a flurry of activity after that. Kat, who has been denying Salman's existence in her life for years, finally admitted they were together.



HitList puts together the entire series of events since the time Katrina was first contacted for her version from her constantly changing stances to Salman's threat to us on Saturday evening saying, "If anything more comes in your paper, there will be dire consequences to pay."

Day 1: Tuesday, 26th May
On Tuesday night, when contacted on the matter of John Abraham's number figuring on her phone bills, Katrina panics. She swears she has no contact with John. She makes many calls to the reporter over a stretch of three hours and denies any contact with him. She tries everything from, "I will jump from my building" to "I will leave the country" to have the story dropped. She pleads, "Write anything but not about the phone bills." When asked to explain her strong reaction, especially when she'd laughed off past link-ups with Akshay Kumar and Ranbir Kapoor, she turns her nose, "Never John; not in a hundred years." But she requests not to be quoted at all. After all the justifications, her focus shifts to uncovering the "source" who's given us the story.

Day 2: Wednesday, 27th May
The story appears in HiTLIST minus Kat's quotes, as she wanted to remain "unavailable for comment." There is an eerie silence from her end. Which is strange given that the previous night, she tried every trick in the book to wrangle out the name of the source. She names everyone from John and his publicist (for the promotion of New York) to people close to Salman ("who hate me") to the guests at Karan Johar's party the previous night ("I heard everyone there was talking about it"). She even attempts to put Salman on the phone with us saying, "Tell him your source; he won't believe me."

Day 3: Thursday, 28th May
It is learnt that Katrina and John Abraham have given interviews to another city newspaper in which they've both spoken up. When asked about her changed stance from "I-don't-want-to-be-quoted" only a day earlier, she explains, "It was an off-the-record chat, which the reporter has used as an interview." When informed they would do a follow-up to the story, she calls the reporter (from the other newspaper) to change her version. A channel she speaks to, also blames Shah Rukh Khan (remember his dushmani with Salman?) for "planting" the story.

Day 4: Friday, 29th May
Katrina's interview appears in the city newspaper. In a complete turnaround, Katrina admits there were text-messages exchanged between her and John but insists "they were old ones, not new." Also her disdain towards Abraham has magically turned into dearness as she says, "John is a sweetheart; we enjoyed each other's company."
John also admits to the text-message exchange but maintains, "They were work SMSes." Kat thanks the reporter for "representing" her properly. The actress then sends HiTLIST a text message explaining why she gave the interview: "I had to clarify as Salman was genuinely not happy about this making him look silly."

Day 5: Saturday, 30th May
In four days, Katrina changed her stance on her New York co-star from "John who?" to "My dear friend John." Fearing a rejoinder, she gets Salman Khan to call a HiTLIST reporter and threaten her, "I believe you are planning to carry something on Katrina on Monday? Tell your editor, if that happens, there will be dire consequences to pay.