Masand: Gossip of the Week | August 2nd

The Ex Factor

It seems things have gotten serious between Bipasha Basu and Harman Baweja. Friends are even suggesting that the couple has talked of marriage. Their relationship became fodder for tabloids ever since Harman was seen living it up with the Jism star and her friends in Goa on her birthday weekend earlier this year.

Apparently the couple enjoys taking off to Goa every chance they get and it was on their recent return from one such holiday that friends noticed that they'd got closer. Although gossip rags have repeatedly insisted that the couple hooked up while on rebounds from their respective break-ups, Bipasha's closest girlfriends are pleasantly surprised by just how happy she seems with Harman.

It's ironic that Harman's former girlfriend, Priyanka Chopra, was in a long on-off relationship with Shahid Kapoor, who briefly dated Bipasha while cooling off from his affair with PC. Meanwhile, Harman was said to be involved with Shamita Shetty briefly after his romance with Priyanka froze over. And Harman and Shahid were buddies once who went out on double dates and holidays to Bali with their respective girlfriends—Harman with Priyanka, Shahid with Kareena Kapoor! Even more interesting, Bipasha never quite hit it off with either Kareena or Priyanka. But she's got along just fine with both their exes.

When Ranbir Kapoor decided he wasn't going to do Zoya Akhtar's next film—in which the Luck By Chance director had hoped to cast Kareena Kapoor and him as siblings—she quickly offered Ranveer Singh the role she'd originally written with Ranbir in mind. And Kareena, too, has made way for Priyanka Chopra. To be fair, that's brave casting on Zoya's part, especially since Ranveer and Priyanka are paired opposite each other romantically in Gunday, which they are currently filming. Meanwhile, one more actress is yet to be cast in Zoya's film as Ranveer's romantic interest. The drama, believed to be centred around an extended family, will also likely feature Anil Kapoor as Ranveer and Priyanka's father.

Ranbir Kapoor, on the other hand, has greenlit a film to be directed by Karan Johar next year. The actor and filmmaker are currently spending substantial time together filming Anurag Kashyap's Bombay Velvet in Sri Lanka. Ranbir plays the leading man in the ambitious film that traces the early history of Bombay. Karan, of course, was famously roped in by Bombay Talkies co-director Kashyap to play the bad guy in Velvet, a Parsi journalist. Kashyap had originally offered this role to Naseeruddin Shah, but quickly turned to Karan when things didn't work out with Naseer.

These two A-list male stars have never been friends despite having many friends in common. Their wives are thick, but the men have consciously avoided running into each other. Last year, matters got worse when they clashed over a shared release date for their movies, with one blaming the other for bullying cinema owners into giving him more screens, while the other defended himself by describing the accusations as baseless and untrue.

However, a source close to both actors reveals that while they may have differences with each other professionally, there's no truth to rumours that they spend all their time plotting each other's failure. In fact, when one of them was dragged into a recent controversy not of his own making, the other actor reportedly called up the first actor's wife to check how the family was doing.

Apparently the two men have more than once exchanged notes on false tabloid rumours through friends. One hears that they have reached out to each other and explained the truth when false quotes attacking the other have been attributed to them. Their wives, too, stay closely in touch and maintain peace between the husbands.