Rift between Vidya Balan and Ekta Kapoor!

Ekta Kapoor's The Dirty Picture (2011) was the defining film of her career and got her 15 best actress awards. And way back in 1995, it was Ekta's TV show Hum Paanch that first brought her to the world of showbiz. Yet, Vidya Balan was conspicuous by her absence at Ekta's Iftar party held on Tuesday night at a fivestar hotel in Juhu. Vidya's absence at the party raised quite a few eyebrows in the industry. In fact, at the venue there were whispers doing the rounds that maybe the actress was in a predicament over having to choose between her husband, Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO of UTV Motion Pictures and her mentor Ekta. With UTV's Chennai Express and Balaji Telefilm's Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai Dobaraa all set to clash at the box office, the twoproduction houses have daggers drawn.Mirror has it that both Ekta and her Dirty Picture director Milan Luthria had sent text messages to Vidya, but her answer was the same: 'I am travelling'.

Curious to know, where the actress is 'travelling' to, Mirror contacted her brand manager. She was initially hesitant but after half-anhour she called up to say "Vidya is out of town". Even repeated questions about her whereabouts failed to yield any concrete answers. The actress did not reply to our texts either.

However, a trip to Vidya's Juhu Tara Road building around 11pm on Wednesday revealed a different picture. The watchman on duty told Mirror that the actress is very much in town. "Vidya madam kal bhi Mumbai mein hi thi aur aaj bhi Mumbai mein hi hain. Lekin abhi who ghar par nahi hai," he said. According to him Vidya and Siddharth were out since morning.

Last year, Kajol had also found herself in a similar situation when her husband Ajay Devgn's Son of Sardaar clashed with her close friend Aditya Chopra's Jab Tak Hai Jaan in November last year. And it took her quite a long time to finally open up about the Ajay-Aditya tussle. She was recently quoted as saying: "Yes, it affected my relationship, but that was a situation which had come out of the ordinary... Hopefully, it will not happen in future again."

We wonder if Vidya, like Kajol, will take eight months to talk about this.