An airline pilot who wanted a picture with the celebrity in his plane got a little bit more than he asked for. The man in question was Amitabh Bachchan and the photo does look innocuous. There is Amitabh looking a little old and frail; the pilot is sitting next to him a mite nervous. But what caught everyone’s attention when this image went viral online was the woman sitting in the seat behind Amitabh. That was Rekha who had turned her face in an obvious bid to not come in the frame. Once again the most famous affair in the history of Bollywood was right back in the headlines. Throughout the late 70s and 80s, the two stars were said to be in a relationship. While Amitabh had never spoken about it, Rekha, in fact, did a confessional interview in the mid-80s to a magazine where she said that they were in love with each other but she understood why Amitabh did not publicly acknowledge it. And for years this news has persisted, sometimes as gossip and sometimes as the worst kept secret of Bollywood. Recently, it was reported that Rekha had gone uninvited to a party in honour of Amitabh’s 60 birthday. Then there were persistent rumours that they were coming together for the sequel to the superhit comedy Welcome. The photo was the next in the series of sudden Rekha-Amitabh news. But news leaked from the Amitabh camp to journalists close to him state that none of this is true. The only reason the two found themselves in the same flight was because many stars were heading to Chennai to be part of an event to do with the 100th anniversary of Tamil cinema. Also, that Amitabh has nothing to do with these coincidences and false news. Indicating perhaps that Rekha is behind this in some way. Ekta’s Achilles HeelEkta Kapoor, at this stage in her life after turning empress of television and an avant garde successful producer in Bollywood, is learning a hard lesson — that you cannot treat film stars as you treat your employees. She is a true pioneer, who radically changed the contours of Indian television with family melodrama serials. But what also trailed her was a reputation of being an irascible and difficult person to work with. In television, no- one really had a choice but to tolerate her. But then she started giving a similar treatment to the stars in her movies and that is backfiring. It began with her going public about her displeasure at Imran Khan not doing enough to promote Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbai Dobaara!. Imran promptly walked out of Milan Talkies which was an Ekta production. It was then said that Shahid Kapoor was going to act in it. And now comes news that even he has decided to not act in it. In between, Priyanka Chopra also refused the project. At this rate, Ekta will have to stick to television.Law of average catches up with Ranbir KapoorOne way to look at Besharam’s fate is that it was bound to happen sooner or later because no superstar is immune to failure. Aamir Khan saw it when Mangal Pandey on which he invested many years sank without a trace. Salman Khan saw a series of flops before his golden run started. And Shah Rukh Khan saw his home production Ra.One doing nothing like it should have considering the amount of time and money he invested in it. And finally, fate has caught up with Ranbir Kapoor, too, in Besharam. Consider all the reasons why it should not have been a flop. It had in Abhinav Kashyap, a director who resuscitated Salman Khan’s career with Dabanng. It had in Ranbir, a superstar who had given back-to-back superhits in the last two years with Barfi and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. And then there was the fact that both his father and mother, Rishi and Neetu Kapoor, were acting in the movie. On the first day, the movie drew a huge audience and then started sinking from day two onwards until now, when it is a certified dud. In fact, by the end of the week theatres were pulling the prints out to make space for other movies. Even the satellite rights amount which had been pre-decided might now have to be decreased because it is tied to how the movie fares at the box office. Ranbir however, really does not have to start pressing the panic button. He has enough fine directors chasing him to keep him occupied for the next five years at least. But what he will have to do is to take a closer look at the scripts before signing on. Besharam was panned by audience and critics alike because it was a shallow movie. Salman and the auto rideOn twitter Salman Khan is exactly how he is said to be in real life: full of devil-may-care attitude and he tweets like he talks. For example, this one which says that he can even get into Twitter and slap someone who is rude: ‘honest opinions, healthy criticism r wl cm, batameezeee ka koi role nahi yahaan, twitter mein guss ke bhi chamat maar sakta hun Koi shak?’ Recently, he revealed on Twitter how he had taken an autorickshaw ride after a long time. Or rather, he was forced to. His vehicle, a Range Rover, had broken down forcing him to use public transport. Gamely, he said he had had a good time of it. He tweeted, ‘Kal raat ko jab gadi bandh padi had to take a rick home, really enjoyed the rickshaw ride : )’ But he was not so tolerant about the car revealing that this was the ninth occasion on which the brake pads had failed. The company told him that it was because it is a heavy car. He made a joke out of it, saying that in that case buses and trucks and planes would be changing their brake pads daily.Send your feedback to bollywood.eye@gmail.com