Alia’s Thing For Ranbir

Alia’s Thing For Ranbir • When Ranbir Met Zoya • The Case of a Purse Aversely Laid

After Kareena Kapoor begged out of the project months ago, it seems there may be more casting speed-bumps for the Balaji-Dharma co-production starring Emraan Hashmi. Now one hears Deepika Padukone, who’d committed to starring in the film after Kareena bowed out, may also make an exit. Sources in the trade reveal that Deepika had reportedly signed the film only as a ‘thank you’ gesture to her Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani producer Karan Johar, but after repeated delays in the film’s production, and her own meteoric rise to the top order, the actress now simply doesn’t have the dates to accommodate the film in her scheme of things.

There’s a very good chance she’ll be replaced by Johar’s Student of the Year discovery and Dharma Productions’ favourite in-house newcomer Alia Bhatt. The pint-sized actress, whose performance in Imtiaz Ali’s yet-to-be-released Highway has got an early buzz going, is being hailed as the Next Big Thing by Johar, who has cast her opposite Arjun Kapoor in his adaptation of Chetan Bhagat’s 2 States, and also in a new romcom opposite Varun Dhawan titled Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhaniya.

But the actor Alia reportedly has a massive crush on and can’t wait to work with is Ranbir Kapoor, who has himself been raving about her work in Highway after his Rockstar director Imtiaz Ali organised a special screening for him.

Ranbir Kapoor, who’s completed roughly 50 per cent of the shoot for Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet, says the film doesn’t compromise the filmmaker’s trademark dark underpinnings but it will likely be more accessible than some of his recent outings. “Anurag’s films, until now, have been mostly festival movies: for Cannes, Toronto, Rome. But he’s been saying he’s making this one for Indian festivals: for Diwali, Christmas, Eid,” quips the actor, hinting at the broad appeal that Anurag is hoping Bombay Velvet will have among local audiences.

Meanwhile, I have it from reliable sources that Ranbir, who famously turned down both Zoya Akhtar’s Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and her next project (a planned brother-sister drama opposite Kareena Kapoor) invited the director out for a drink when they both happened to be in London recently, and clarified that he had no problems with her whatsoever. He reportedly asked her not to be upset with or mad at him, if she was, and explained that he was in the mood for more ‘commercial’ films. Zoya Akhtar apparently insisted she’d nursed no hard feelings towards him, and said she understood his reservations.

By the time you’re reading this, Ranbir will be in New York where he’s holidaying with Katrina Kaif, his buddy and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani director Ayan Mukherji, and Karan Johar who’s been in the Big Apple for several days. Ranbir told me last week that the repeated invasion of his private life means he will travel more and more each year in his spare time.

At her friend’s wedding in Chennai recently, a popular star kid and upcoming actress reportedly behaved like a spoilt brat in full public view of revellers, becoming the talk of the evening. The light-eyed up-n-comer is believed to have blasted one of the groom’s friends when she came off stage after performing in the sangeet. Insisting she had left her purse with the young fellow when she went up to dance, the actress lost her temper at him when he said she hadn’t handed him her purse. “I had two iPhones in that purse. How could you be so irresponsible?” she allegedly barked at him in the presence of dozens of their friends.

Humiliated, the gentleman in question insisted he hadn’t so much as seen her purse, and asked her to think hard if she might have left it with someone else. More screaming ensued before she huffed and puffed and left the spot angrily. Friends consoled the visibly shaken victim of her temper, and before the end of the evening, the actress found her purse in the safe custody of an acquaintance with whom she’d apparently left it. The contents were intact too.

She didn’t bother making an apology to the young man she’d been so nasty to. That was left for her embarrassed friends to do on her behalf.

Alia BhattDeepika PadukoneRanbir Kapoor