Salman KhaN cOPIED ashabhi Act: read on

Everything had been planned to perfection for Abhishek Bachchan's act with fiance Aishwarya Rai at last weekend's Zee Cine Awards in Malaysia.

That is, until Salman Khan and his arm candy Katrina Kaif performed their act first and stole what was supposed to be AbhiAsh's surprise manoeuvre!

Sly Sallu

It is learnt that as part of his act, Bachchan Jr had planned that he would step down from the stage to Ash, who was seated in the front row, and lead her onto the stage for a shimmy.

But to their horror, Katrina and her dancers (who performed before AbhiAsh) leapt into the audience mid-way through their frenzied gyrations and dragged a suitably surprised looking Salman to the stage for some synchronised dancing.

What's worse, this connivance on KhanKat's part made viewers feel that AbhiAsh had copied their piece de resistance.

Both couples had different choreographers for their performances. Ganesh Hedge directed AbhiAsh's segment, while Bosco-Ceasar choreographed the KhanKat's act.

When asked about KhanKat's act, choreographer Bosco Martis says, "That part of the act was Salman's own doing. It was impromptu and we did not know anything about it. Salman did talk about a surprise element in the performance but we had no clue what it was."

An insider reveals that Sallu had learnt about AbhiAsh's move from somebody who had seen them rehearse and simply decided to copy their move.

Abhi's ire

Meanwhile, Ganesh Hegde (who choreographed AbhiAsh's act) says that here too it was Abhishek's idea to go into the audience and dance. "During rehearsals, Abhishek decided that he would go into the audience.

He wanted to add some masti to his performance. Abhishek had mentioned that he wanted to make Yash (Chopra) uncle dance, but I did not know exactly who he wanted to drag back on stage. It was decided that he would do his act in the audience itself, but eventually he dragged Ash up on stage," says Hegde.

Incidentally, Sallu and Hegde were once thick friends but now don't see eye-to-eye. Salman threw Hegde out of the Rockstar show last year and replaced him with Bosco-Ceaser, after Hegde couldn't give him dates, as he was busy choreographing Shah Rukh Khan's Don.

Whether Sallu did this to spite AbhiAsh or the choreographer is not clear, but it's evident that Abhishek is none too pleased with the star's child-like behaviour.

A source adds, "Abhishek had an inkling of what Sallu was planning and even requested Pradeep Guha (CEO, Zee Telefilms) to move his performance as the show's opening act, but by then, it was too late to reschedule."

We spoke to Bunty Walia, who managed Abhishek's act, who said, "It was an impromptu act by Abhishek. Aishwarya was taken unawares and it is clear from her reaction."