Sen-Sational Split

IT’S out, and it’s official now. Celina Jaitley is the real reason behind the Sushmita Sen-Sanjay Narang split. Although the sensa...

IT’S out, and it’s official now. Celina Jaitley is the real reason behind the Sushmita Sen-Sanjay Narang split. Although the sensational Sushmita has moved on (she denies rumours of a relationship with Sabeer Bhatia), and claims she’s still on cordial terms with her former beau, she’s curt and dismissive when you mention Ms Jaitley. Ummm… it might be remembered that not so many light years ago, Sushmita herself was the ‘other woman’ when her relationships with Vikram Bhatt and Sanjay Kapoor caused tension in their respective marriages…

No Axes to Grind

IT’S interesting how Aishwarya Rai and Rani Mukherjee can continue to be friends even after all that has transpired recently. After the highly publicised fracas Rai’s ex-boyfriend Salman Khan created in Pune some weeks ago where the actress was shooting for Shah Rukh Khan’s home production, directed by Aziz Mirza, the former Miss World was promptly replaced in the film by her good friend Rani Mukherjee. The ouster prompted Aishwarya to finally break her silence on the whole Salman episode, going so far as to publicly declare that his obsessive ways were harming her career. Less than a week later, the two actresses were spotted chatting away happily as they came together for the inauguration of the International Film Festival of India in the Capital recently. Nobody could tell from their merry banter that either possibly held a grudge against the other. Then again, maybe they don’t. Strange are the ways of showbiz.

Games at 60

EVEN at 60, Amitabh Bachchan makes big news. It is learnt that the actor has walked out of producer Feroz Nadiadwala’s Police Force, co-starring Sunil Shetty and Tabu, to get even with director Madhur Bhandarkar (who helms the project) for endlessly delaying his commitment to direct a film for AB Corp. Meanwhile, Bachchan is expected to feature in filmmaker Rajkumar Santoshi’s next, a film titled Khaki. Despite the poor box-office performance of The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, Santoshi continues to remain a much sought-after director. Bollywood insiders say the Bachchan project is a quickie, after which Santoshi will move on to his ambitious Rs 100-crore epic extravaganza, Mahabharata for Ramoji Rao.

Friend in Deed

KUDOS to good ol’ Rishi Kapoor, who came out in strong support of ‘‘good friend’’ Salman Khan earlier this week. The veteran actor went all out to stand by the errant Khan in the accident case, and insisted that everyone was making too much of a noise when actually the law should be allowed to do what is needed to be done. What is remarkable, really, is the fact that Chintu’s gesture comes a few months after Salman roughed up the actor’s son Ranbir at a city restaurant. Of course, Mr Fab Abs had no idea who the young kid was when he messed around with him. Bravo to Chintu for taking a stand in an industry where sitting on the fence is the most popular option.

Nagging Doubt

Madhuri Dixit is pregnant. Should she call an end to her career as an actress now?

Karisma Kapoor: ‘‘Why should she? Madhuri is one of the best actresses our country has, and she should work till as long as she enjoys it. Her absence from the screen will be a big loss to the audience.’’

Marc Robinson: ‘‘Yes, please.’’

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Subhash Ghai: ‘‘Madhuri has been a wonderful actress and the audience will never forget that. Perhaps she should move on to the next exciting phase of her life — motherhood.’’

Ajay Devgan: ‘‘I think the decision should be entirely on her own. I don’t think it’s fair for anyone else to decide something like this on her behalf. As long as she is able to juggle motherhood with her career, why should anyone else have any problems?”