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Blast From The Past: “When Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor got into a catfight
Blast from the past The Priyanka Kareena Hostilities Flare Up Again!
Catfights are legendary in Bollywood. But the Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor battles are remembered even today. Though they supposedly kissed ‘n’ made up on KJo’s plush couch on Koffee With Karan – we think these two mercurial female superstars are quiet on the war front simply because they have been separated by two continents. Priyanka is busy chasing Hollywood dreams while Kareena is chasing her two moppets Taimur and Jeh. Let’s flip through the pages of Stardust of the past to read more about the PeeCee- Kareena’s pow wows.
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There’s a popular belief (not without good reason) in Bollywood – two actresses can never be friends. Especially when they’re in the same league, things become all the more difficult. The professional hostilities more than often start affecting personal equations. And for today’s blithe and care-a-damn girls, it doesn’t make much of a difference when the clash becomes public either. Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra are renowned for their rather volatile camaraderie. At times, they’ve refused to acknowledge each other’s presence in public. And there have been instances when they’ve expressed a warm friendship, purely for the cameras’ sake. At the Max Stardust Awards recently, everyone was not surprised when the two actresses sat next to each other without even exchanging a polite hello. However when the shutterbugs closed in, they started talking to each other like longlost BFFs, proving that they are better actresses off screen. Within their own coterie, of course, they don’t make any bones about their rancor.
Over the past few months, the game of one-upmanship has gathered a new momentum. And everyone’s now wondering whether it’s because of the sudden entry of Bebo’s ex-fl ame chocolate-boy Shaahid Kapoor into Priyanka’s life that’s renewed the friction between the two actresses. Kareena and Priyanka have always had a very uncertain relationship. Initially, it seemed the girls shared warm vibes and even went out on double dates together with their respective boyfriends (Shaahid and Harman Baweja) at that time. They always had good things to say about each other in print too. Things took an unexpected turn when Kareena, on Karan Johar’s popular talk show maintained that the equation had changed and they were merely acquaintances now. Even Priyanka was taken aback when she heard that.
Adding insult to the injury, Bebo took pot-shots at PC’s acting skills in an interview to a leading daily. But Priyanka was not one to take an injury lying down and proved she was made of tougher stuff when she hit back with a vengeance in a magazine interview when she took a dig at Kareena’s ‘Jab We Met’ success story by stating that the well deserved kudos came after a wait of eight long years. And everything rapidly went downhill from this point. These happenings merely made everyone conclude that they were never really friends to begin with. The two stars have always been pitted against each other because they’ve been the closest contemporaries for the top crown. The first time the claws were out in the open was during the making of the AbbasMustan directed film ‘Aitraaz’, starring Akshay Kumar. Even though Kareena was the bigger star then, Priyanka walked away with all the awards and accolades thanks to her negative and glamorously etched out role in the movie.
The war begun when Priyanka maintained she was the main protagonist of the film while Kareena stated that she was the leading lady. The girls also shared an icy cold relationship even when they acted in ‘Don’ together. Kareena only did a special appearance in the movie, but was more talked about than Priyanka, who was the lead. Even though they just had a couple of scenes with each other, the unit was abuzz with tales about hostilities between the two on the sets. There were times when even Shah Rukh Khan would crack jokes about it. Over the last year, this clash has become more intense as they race towards the finishing line – the prize being the much-coveted numero uno position in Bollywood. Priyanka and Harman were in a steady relationship when Kareena was approached to do Harman’s mega-debut ‘Love Story 2050’. Kareena knowing well that Harman was Piggy Chops’ boyfriend, put down her terms, perhaps in a bid to dissuade the producers. She quoted an enormous figure and was even more surprised when Harry Baweja agreed to it. However despite that, when Bebo developed cold feet soon after and walked out of the film, people attributed that to Priyanka’s presence in Harman’s life. Eventually, Priyanka stepped into her nemesis’ shoes to salvage the situation.
One even hears that when boyfriend Saif Ali Khan was working on his home production with Imtiaz Ali, one of the director’s choices for the leading role was Priyanka. But later, Deepika Padukone was pencilled in for the same role. Insiders insist that the sizezero sensation had a part to play in that but the Kapoor girl hasn’t ever spoken about it. The last few months have been particularly stressful for both the heroines. And incidentally, it’s all happening thanks to the entry of Shaahid Kapoor in Priyanka’s life.
A close friend of Kareena discloses, “It’s not that she is jealous of Shaahid and Priyanka. Kareena is well over Shaahid and she just wants the best for him. It’s bothering her because she believes Priyanka is just not the right girl for him.” Kareena has never had an issue with any of the other girls Shaahid was linked with – Sania Mirza and Vidya Balan. “In fact, when they bumped into each other once, Kareena had teased Shaahid about the many women in his life,” reveals our informer. But she’s certainly peeved with the Priyanka episode.
The first time this came to the fore was when Shaahid hosted a party to celebrate his birthday at a popular suburban five-star hotel. It’s a small world, and via Shaahid and Kareena’s common friends, she heard about how the Chopra lass was taking charge of the entire party and officiating as the hostess. Kareena was shocked when she heard that the former Miss World was calling the guests herself and was taking care of the minutest details, as if she wanted to make sure nothing went wrong for her man on his special day. “What upsets Kareena is the fact that Priyanka is not acknowledging her relationship with Shaahid. Shaahid doesn’t mind going public but Priyanka doesn’t want to. By doing this, Kareena feels Priyanka is demeaning Shaahid. She doesn’t want Shaahid to go through what happened with Harman,” says our source. Kareena decided to hit back by having her own party on the same night. It was a last minute call and some of the guests were obviously common. So they all had to eventually shuttle between the two venues. The belligerence blew through the roof and came into full public eye finally a week later at Ali Morani’s party. Kareena came with Saif and the two were (as usual) glued to one another. Then when Priyanka made an entry with Shaahid (probably their first official public appearance together) – they had everyone talking in hushed whispers on whether they had finally decided to go public with their relationship.
Naturally, the highlight of the night was when the two couples came face to face in front of everyone – and they just looked through each other and walked away, without even exchanging pleasantries. It was the talk of the evening – how Priyanka and Kareena gave each other the royal snub. Like a designer friend of Kareena puts it, “Bebo is hopelessly in love with Saif. But she also feels very protective of Shaahid. They have been in touch and she wants good things to happen to him. She just feels Priyanka isn’t the right one for him and the sooner he realises it, the better it is for him.” This just goes to prove that even though Bebo is not a part of Shasha’s life, she’s still concerned for his welfare and obviously wants just the best things for him in life. What started out as a modified catfight between two actresses is slowly reaching the proportions of a fullblown battle. It seems, at this point, the only person who can do anything to even remotely salvage the situation is Shaahid Kapoor, by standing up and reclaiming his life. Shasha, are you listening?
FAST FORWARD
Not many eons ago. Kareena Kapoor was madly in love with Shahid Kapoor. However, Shahid had this very sexy neighbor who for some unseen reason to the Kapoor girls, he seem to enjoy spending time with. This got the fiery Kareena rather suspicious. So she toured around his building to find out more. And guess what, the sultry Priyanka Chopra turned out to be the sexy neighbor who at opportune times would be seen donning Shahid’s tees. Kareena anyway broke up with Sasha and so Shahid decided the best remedy would be to get a little of PeeCee oops peace by staying indoors and getting all the TLC from Priyanka. Kareena, however, still had Shahid’s best interest in mind despite the fact that she had moved on to be with the sophisticated nawaab Saif Ali Khan. And she felt that PeeCee was not right for Shahid and she would break his heart into smithereens. Hence the battle of the ‘ex’es started and it was further fuelled by Shahid Kapoor’s dalliance with Priyanka. Thus began one of the biggest catfights in Bollywood which went on for many years. Of course, now supposedly both the leading ladies have settled down in holy matrimony and are at peace with each other. But at that point, it sure felt like a war field with everybody in between rushing for cover.
- Sumita Chakraborty
