Katrina Kaif exits as Kareena Kapoor enters Kabir Khan's camp

Chatpati Chawla | Jul 10, 2014, 12:33PM IST

Katrina Kaif|Saif Ali Khan|Salman Khan|Kareena Kapoor

Katrina Kaif is a superstar today, with more hits to her name than any other leading lady of Bollywood. However, in the first few years of venturing into Bollywood, Katrina has had unconditional support and mentorship from a couple of filmmakers. Leading that list is Kabir Khan, who gave her a sensitive and poignant character in New York. He also delivered a moolah raking block buster with her in Ek Tha Tiger. And now, the director is all set to feature her opposite Saif Ali Khan in action thriller Phantom.

Since Kabir and Katrina have worked together in three films so far, many in Bollywood assumed that the director and his muse are going to be permanent fixture for most of the future projects too. After all, Katrina is a superstar today and Kabir gets easy access to her.

But buzz has it that this muse-mentor relationship is over for now as Kabir has decided to make his next film without Katrina Kaif in it. Hoping to repeat the 150 crore magic of Ek Tha Tiger, Kabir will direct Salman Khan in his next project. Needless to say, this one will feature some of the best action sequences too. And this time, Kareena Kapoor will be cast opposite Salman Khan.

The film will reportedly be co-produced by Salman Khan, and as is known to all, Salman shares a very warm equation with Kareena. It is, however, impossible to not speculate about Kabir opting for Kareena over Katrina. After all, Katrina and Salman share an impressive success ratio on celluloid. One wonders if Katrina's tantrums and fussy nature have anything to do with Kabir's change of heart? Well, as her star power grows, there's a good chance that this could have happened, even when the director at the receiving end is one of her old friends and mentors.