BollyParty

A cheering crowd of fans greeted Shahid Kapur and Vidya Balan at the red carpet premiere of Kismat Konnection in the Capital on Friday night. And although the lead pair has been feverishly denying any romantic connection off the screen, everyone was asking them the million-dollar-question first up.

"It's my private space, we are good friends, beyond that if people are going to write, there is not much one can do about it," stated Shahid.

Vidya too made it clear that there was no romance in the air.

"We are co-stars who get along well, which is what shows on screen and that's about it for the moment," she said.

True or false, the romantic rumour surely promoted the movie in a big way. But the stars couldn't help but disagree.

"I think a good film always does well. If the film is good people will like it. Nothing else can make it work," said Shahid.

"Honestly I don't know how much all this hype helps. A good film works irrespective," added Vidya.

Well, only time will tell if Shahid and Vidya can connect with the audience or not. Meanwhile, Vidya, who's been repeatedly slammed by the fashion police, believes that the movie has helped her connect with her style quotient like never before.

"I have been getting a lot of compliments for my look in the movie. I am sporting a new western look," she stated.

Well, that's a little hard to believe and will have to watch the movie to really know if Vidya can be taken at her word.

Mumbai, July 19: The façade of friendship and amiable relations between Shah Rukh and Salman slipped at Katrina Kaif’s birthday party on July 16 and what came out in the open was hidden hostilities and unhealthy rivalry between the two super stars.

Eyewitnesses reveal that the verbal duel between the duo got so heated up that they almost became physical and on the verge of punching each other.

Salman had thrown a lavish birthday party for girlfriend Katrina at Olive Bar and Kitchen, Bandra, in which all the bigwigs of filmdom were invited. According to a newspaper, "Salman was already high when SRK and Gauri walked in. After downing a few more drinks, Sallu started picking on SRK." Shah Rukh had reportedly turned down Salman’s request to do a guest appearance in Main Aur Mrs Khanna, which is being produced by Salman and Sohail.

This did not go well with Salman, who had gone out of his way to do favours for King Khan. Sallu had made a special appearance in SRK’s home production ‘Om Shanti Om’ and also appeared on KBC with girlfriend Katrina.

Salman was miffed by SRK’s attitude and chose to express his resentment at the wrong time. The two Khans were sitting close, surrounded by a few close friends, when Salman started passing sarcastic remarks at SRK. Initially, SRK tried to laugh it off but when the remarks became too abusive, he began trading insult for insult.

Salman adversely commented at SRK’s show Paanchvi Paas, calling it a big flop. The star added that SRK is trying to sabotage his show – Dus ka Dum. “You are a matlabi insaan. You only call people when you need them, and then don't keep in touch,” Sallu added.

SRK reacted strongly saying that no one wants to watch Salman’s show. At this, Salman asked him to keep quiet or he would beat him up.

This made King Khan very aggressive and he said that he would beat Salman in his party, in front of his friends. The two glared at each other and things would have turned ugly had Shahrukh’s wife Gauri Khan not intervened. She expressed her wish to leave immediately. SRK allowed his wife to take his arm and they left the party. Salman didn’t even try to stop his guests.

SRK-Sallu rivalry dates back to the time, when SRK was shooting for Chalte Chalte (2003), with Aishwarya. At that time, Salman was dating Aishwarya Rai. The duo had a fight when Salman disrupted the shooting to meet Ash and this made SRK replace Ash with Rani Mukerjee. The two were not on talking terms for long and patched up only at Farah Khan's sangeet ceremony in 2004.

The ugly face-off between the two super stars shows that things may look smooth in the forefront but things are not always smooth beneath the surface in big bad Bollywood!

After the brilliant Jab We Met, Shahid Kapur hopes to give us another good film, Kismat Konnection, this Friday.

Nithya Ramani spoke to the actor, and asked him to shed light on his new film, directed by Aziz Mirza and co-starring Vidya Balan.

What is Kismet Konnection about?

It is a romantic comedy, similar to what you would expect of an Aziz Mirza film. In all his films, his protagonists always represent the common man. The characters are never too heavy, or senseless.

I play Raj, a struggling architect. Everybody thinks that he will make it big one day but it has been five years, and nothing much has happened yet. The character is very different than the one I played in Jab We Met, where I was very silent.

Do you believe in kismat?

Yes, I believe that there is another force that inspects our life. Like hard work and effort, fate plays a vital role in everyone's life. People should know how to recognise an opportunity and grab it.

This is your first film with Vidya Balan. How has the experience been?

She is a wonderful actress, very simple and easy to get along. It becomes very easy if the actors get along well with each other. Initially, everyone was worried about how we would break the ice. But she made it very simple. She came up to me and asked for my autograph on the first day of the shooting. All of us started laughing.

Harman Baweja-Priyanka Chopra is another love couple of Bollywood. Though they rarely make any display of their personal emotions and are always hesitant to declare their love in public, the actions of the duo gives us a clear indication that they are in a love relationship. Their reel love story failed at the box office but their real life chemistry is still on and is catching momentum with every passing day. Harman who can go to any extent to make his ladylove happy is busy these days selecting gifts for Priyanka as her birthday is round the corner.

Presently, Harman is in Dubai and he is hanging around in all the shops of Dubai to present his dear ones a lifetime possession. Regarding the gift, Harman said, "I don't know as yet what I'll get for Priyanka. But girls like anything you give then in a gift-wrap and with a smile, trust me on that." It seems that Harman has a good knowledge about likings and disliking of girls.

He will soon be landing in Dubai to start shooting for his next flick Victory and to make July 18 (Priyanka’s birthday) a memorable day for his lady.