* Karan Johar: Cheeky remarks.
* Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif: Fodder for gossip mills.
* Aishwarya Rai: Ready for action?
Karan Johar is about to host the next edition of his phenomenally popular chat show Koffee With Karan. It is the only show in which celebrities give at least some inkling of honest opinions. This has probably to do with the enormous network and goodwill that Karan has in the industry. He was more or less born to it with his father also being a man among the very crème de la crème of Bollywood.
Recently Karan gave an interview to a newspaper and it was quite interesting to see some of his opinions. He made a comparison between the new breed of stars and the old ones. He said Hrithik Roshan, Ajay Devgn, Akshay Kumar and the three Khans are on their way out but their popularity will never be seen again because there are just too many in the younger lot.
That the reign of the older stars is waning is a puzzling observation given that Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman are at their peak going by the enormous success of their films. In fact, there are also not too many stars in the younger lot.
You can count the ones who matter on your fingers — Ranbir Kapoor, Imran Khan, Shahid Kapoor and a few others. In the early 1990s they used to say Amitabh Bachchan’s popularity will never be replicated. But Shah Rukh Khan proved it wrong in just a decade.
Karan will also not earn many points from his fraternity for his remark that the new lot of stars are much more certain about themselves which leads to the inference that older ones were insecure. He is probably much better at getting gossip out of his chat show guests than spouting star-theories on Bollywood.
Bips on the bounce
No one is sure about when exactly this happened but it definitely counts among the unusual link-ups of Bollywood. Bipasha Basu, who is given to saying that she’s enjoying her singlehood, is apparently in a relationship and that too to someone who’s the very antithesis of her former beau John Abraham.
Some time back Bipasha celebrated her birthday in Goa amidst much fanfare. Among the photos of the revelry, there was one which showed Harman Baweja. Harman is the son of the producer Harry Baweja who made some successful movies in the 1990s.
When Harman decided to be an actor, he was expected to be the next big thing. He was a decent actor, could dance and also looked uncannily like Hrithik Roshan. His girlfriend at the time was Priyanka Chopra. In 2008 and 2009, a couple of his big budget films — Love Story 2050 and What’s Your Raashee? —released.
And both bombed miserably putting a premature end to Harman’s career. In the personal front too he suffered. Priyanka Chopra broke up with him. He disappeared from public memory. Now he is suddenly being seen regularly with Bipasha Basu, who is also still dealing with the hangover of the break up with John.
Recently, they were photographed coming out of a movie theatre. One gossip snippet said that the two were in common friend Shilpa Shetty’s home when they were introduced to each other and instantly bonded.
Perhaps what brought them together was, as is speculated, a shared history of bad splits with earlier partners. Or it could be the common downturn of their careers. In any case, it will take some time before it becomes clear whether this is anything permanent or just another one of those flings.
Comeback question
The rumours about Aishwarya Rai’s comeback has been going around for some time. In the beginning days post her delivery, there were all these nasty comments of how she had not dropped the weight put on during pregnancy.
She ignored the snarkiness and took her own time enjoying her new motherhood. Then followed a modelling assignment for a jewellery brand in which she looked as beautiful as ever though you could see that they had used some camerawork to not highlight the figure.
But the questions about a return to films doggedly followed. Last December, she had said that she was still to zero in on a script implying that she was ready. In March, there were rumours that she would be doing a role opposite, of all people, Varun Dhawan, the actor of Student of the Year who is 15 years younger to her.
And now, the latest rumour is that she is going to be in Happy New Year, starring alongside Shah Rukh Khan.
Khan and Aishwarya were for a long time not on talking terms but the animosity got resolved some time back. Happy New Year also stars Abhishek Bachchan, Aishwarya’s husband. Farah Khan, the director, says that Aishwarya is not in the movie and these are all rumours.
Collateral publicity
The 25th anniversary of Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, that mega blockbuster 1989 movie which launched the career of Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla, was celebrated recently. After a long while you saw Aamir and Juhi together. There were parties and special screenings to mark the event.
While everything was very hunky dory, a completely unconnected set of stars found themselves in a peculiar problem. Ranbir Kapoor, whose rumours of going steady with Katrina Kaif is getting stronger and stronger was apparently showing her his new Mercedes SUV.
They were shooting in the same studio in different projects and he had offered to drop her home. On the way, however, according to the gossip mill, he noticed the media crowd gathered to cover the QSQT anniversary celebration. He decided that he didn’t want to get trapped in the limelight with Katrina and almost banged into another car.
He managed to avoid the accident and drove on. But by then the media had already got a whiff of the incident. At times like this, it’s much better to keep a straight face and mouth the ‘We are just good friends’ line.
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