Before the release of Simran, Kangana Ranaut once again opened up the can of worms on the bizarre spat with Hrithik Roshan, where she claimed they had an affair and he said she was delusional.
Kangana went to studio after studio badmouthing Hrithik who chose not to respond. But it was inevitable that with the amount of bad press and ridicule that he was getting, something would happen. And it did. Last week Hrithik put up a lengthy Facebook post in his defence. It actually had quite a dignified tone to it and he didn’t name Kangana, referring to her as just ‘lady in question’.
He spoke about hoping that the brouhaha would die down but it hadn’t. ‘Just like a nagging health issue sometimes ignored can turn malignant, this situation for me has unfortunately turned malignant,’ he wrote, claiming that it was wrong to term it as a quarrel between lovers or an affair gone sour. Instead, he said he had never met Kangana ever in private and that, while she claimed that they had a rendezvous in Paris in January 2014, his passport shows that he was never there. Also, he asked why there was absolutely not a trace of evidence of their togetherness, like a selfie or paparazzi pictures or witnesses or even a memento.
He said he understood that people believed Kangana because she was a woman and he didn’t blame them for it. ‘Women have suffered centuries of abuse at the hands of men and it infuriates me how some men can be so brutal and they deserve the harshest punishment. But by that logic if it ordains that one man can’t be vulnerable and one woman can’t be a liar, so be it. I’m ok with that too,’ he wrote.
While Kangana herself hasn’t responded yet, her sister Rangoli Chandel took to Twitter and said that for some time now Hrithik’s public relations team had been maligning Kangana. She also tweeted, ‘Everyone can tell who is the stalker here forget about Kangana she hss moved on n stalker uncle pls focus on ur children and wife Tnx @iHrithik’. Meanwhile another batch of e-mails reportedly sent by Kangana to Hrithik was leaked to the media and that dragged an actor with the initials RK into it. In one e-mail, Kangana talks about rumours of the actor keen on a relationship with her. It is now being speculated by the gossip media that RK is Ranbir Kapoor thus unfortunately getting his name into the sordid mess.
Dropped?
Shekhar Kapur is an iconic director but his movies take forever to get made. Like Paani, which he has been trying to do for years. The actor who was going to helm the movie was supposed to be Sushant Singh Rathore. He had taken a lot of effort for the role, even giving up plum projects like Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Ram Leela.
But then the production house Yashraj Films backed out of Paani at the last minute and that put a spoke in the wheels. It was decided to shelve the project. Just a few months ago, there was a Twitter exchange between Shekhar and Sushant where they tried to assuage each other’s disappointment. Now suddenly there is news, albeit unconfirmed, that Shekhar might be going ahead with Paani but with a different actor. What is doubly jarring for Sushant is that the actor is said to be Ranveer Singh. They are said to see each other as competitors angling for the same big meaty projects. When Sushant didn’t do Ram Leela, it had gone to Ranveer Singh and the movie went on to be a huge blockbuster adding considerably to Ranveer’s star value.
Even Befikre was supposed to go to Sushant but Ranveer did it instead. But that movie became a big flop and later Sushant said that he wouldn’t have taken it up anyway because the premise of its plot was flawed. If his rival is getting Paani, it will be cruel on him.
Run off success
Judwaa 2 has become a runaway hit, racing to the Rs100 crore box office revenue mark in a week. For Varun Dhawan, this cements his place as the most promising actor of his generation.
After two tepid movies in 2016, 2017 has been a year when he can do no wrong. There was first Badrinath Ki Dulhania which was a super hit and also a 100 crore grosser. And now Judwaa 2 is especially gratifying given that it was a family project with father David Dhawan directing him.
In one tweet Varun spoke of his joy for his father and wrote, ‘Judwaa2 is #DAVIDDHAWAN’S 44th film. I am happy as an actor but prouder as a son. He knows his audience and says thank u’. Meanwhile he is reportedly going to once again team up with Alia Bhatt, a combination that is also getting a reputation for being unbeatable. This was sparked off by an Instagram photo he shared of the two in costumes with a caption in which he wrote about being back on set with Alia. The movie is being produced by Karan Johar and with such a cast and crew, it will probably add one more feather to Varun’s cap.
Muted celebration
Just a couple of days remain for Amitabh Bachchan to bring in his 75th birthday. It is a big milestone in a life that has unarguably been one of the most successful in Bollywood. However, as against the normal party celebration every year, it is being said that this time the Big B is keeping it low key and silent.
That is as much as he hinted when a Bollywood reporter asked him, saying there was no reason to make a fuss over it. But there are also rumours about another reason for this. It is said that daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai does not get along with his daughter Shweta and that is why he decided on the non-celebration.
Whether that is true we don’t know and chances are it won’t get confirmed anytime soon. On the other hand, there were also news reports that the entire Bachchan family might be going to Maldives to mark his birthday. If Aishwarya is part of the group, then we can surmise that all the rumours of bad relations were just fake news. If she is not then there will be plenty of more guesswork happening.
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HIT BACK: Hrithik Roshan says he has never met Kangana Ranaut in private.
