No showdown with Rani, says Saif

Dismissing rift rumours, actor Saif Ali Khan clarifies that neither girlfriend Rosa nor co-star Rani Mukerji are at loggerheads with him.

"What's this about a showdown with Rani? Am I mad to have a showdown with her? I mean, come on! Rani and I have shared a cordial professional relationship ever since we did 'Hum Tum' together. That film will always remain special to me. It was my first solo-hero hit," says the "Omkara" star.

"I won't say Rani and I are close friends. But we connect really well on the sets. We do our work together and move in different directions after-hours," Saif told IANS on phone from New York where he is shooting for Siddharth Anand's "Tara Rum Pum".

So where did these rumours come from?

"When I arrived in New York, I stayed with the rest of the 'Tara Rum Pam' unit in the same hotel. But when Rosa joined me, I wanted us to live in an apartment. I feel that's the only way to get to know a city.

"As soon as Rosa and I moved into an apartment news spread that Rani and I were staying in separate hotels. That's truly dumb, man. The last thing we need on a foreign location is the principal lead's tantrums. And do you think we can get away with a showdown in front of the whole unit? We'd had the details of the slaps and punches pasted on the Internet," he says.

Humour intact, Saif gets into grimmer ground.

"I've heard rumours about Rosa and me splitting and that she has gone back home to Mumbai before me because of our fights. We're doing well for ourselves as a couple. Do we need these rumours to come and spoil things between us?

"I guess every relationship conducted in the limelight is subjected to such scrutiny. I can take that. But it gets a bit annoying when we need to time our comings and goings according to the way people would respond to our movement," says Saif.

So where are the rumours coming from?

"Search me! Probably from people who need to get a life. We can't help it if people think our relationship is in trouble. The fact is we're very happy together," he shrugs.

Talking about Anand's "Tara Rum Pum", he says: "It's going really well. I think Siddharth has another winner on his hands after 'Salaam Namaste'. It feels wonderful to be part of cinema so different from one another, like 'Omkara' and 'Tara Rum Pum'."