This Independence Day, there's going to be a historic battle at the box office with both Akshay Kumar's Rustom and Hrithik Roshan's Mohenjo Daro dipping into the past to tell a story. While Akshay's film harks back to the recent past, the Nanavati murder case of 1959, Hrithik's excavates a world which history books introduced us to in school.

When done with creative dexterity, the mix of fact and fiction can make compelling cinema. For example, the Titanic did sink but the Rose-Jack Dawson romance came from James Cameron's imagination and meshed well to make the blockbuster Titanic .

That's one of the reasons why I'm confident that Lagaan maker Ashutosh Gowariker will have a riveting film in Mohenjo Daro. He wove the fictional world of Champaner for Lagaan but set it in the British Raj. He did a repeat act with Jodhaa Akbar where he took real historical figures, but created their romance in his office. But he went wrong, very wrong in the basic notes he struck with What's Your Rashee , a light fictional work that was not his forte. And he erred badly again when he picked the Chittagong Uprising, a limited-appeal chapter from India's struggle for Independence. With Abhishek Bachchan miscast in a plodding screenplay that had neither dramatic, comic nor romantic relief, Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Sey was Ashutosh's second failure.

But watching a drop-dead dashing Hrithik Roshan introduce his new leading lady, Pooja Hegde, to the media at the Marriott, Mohenjo Daro suddenly looked romantic, musical and promising. Topped with A.R. Rahman's absolutely first-rate number Tuhai and Hrithik's uniquely traditional dance moves, Ashutosh seems to have got his cocktail right this time.

It is time Hrithik returned to centrestage anyway. To either pooh away or give credence to the stories that buzz around the media.

After a spate of film-related questions, when someone asked Hrithik to make a statement on his battle with Kangana, his silence was not becoming. Hushing down those who felt it was an inappropriate question to ask, Hrithik seemed to side with the media when he raised his hand and said graciously, "Let him ask, it's all right, I'll answer it." And then went on to evade it completely by saying, "Not on this platform." But one question that he did briefly reply to was about the lack of support for his stand against Kangana from his colleagues. "When you're on the side of truth, you don't need anybody's support," Hrithik famously commented, his warm light eyes turning ice cold for a few seconds.

Looking at Hrithik's Greek god handsomeness, it seemed entirely possible that somebody (read Kangana) had been fantasising about an affair, a fling or an ONS (one-night stand) with him. Why else would a 42-year-old man, single, not answerable to anybody and an actor to boot, go to such lengths to deny a relationship? And this was an actor who didn't hide his girl (Sussanne) even at the outset of his career, a time when most young heroes who've become a craze with girls, safeguard their images and don't air a fiancée or a wife. When he was upfront and unafraid then, why would Hrithik refute a fling or a relationship today, if he'd had one with Kangana?

The media, I told you, has some interesting tales circulating within its circle.

"He would deny it because he's been told by Mr Bachchan to clear his name," said a perky TV anchor with full I-have-inside-info confidence. This perspective took it as a given that Hrithik and Shweta were a serious item together. But if that were true, wouldn't a seasoned celebrity of Mr Bachchan's ilk be the last man to ask any actor to clear his name? Bachchan himself never had to present a clean chit to anybody vis-à-vis Rekha. Son Abhishek didn't wish away his engagement to Karisma Kapoor or get himself a clean slate in l'affaire Rani Mukerji. And Aishwarya Rai's Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi liaisons too, weren't swept under the carpet. What I mean is, this is a celebrity-studded family that's familiar with and has dealt with such matters, whether manufactured or true. So why on earth would they expect Hrithik to acquit himself?

There is another side to the Hrithik-Kangana wrangle - the feminist angle. There's the "atta girl" brigade of journos that'll cheer any woman and call her gutsy if she takes on a man. But a legal matter cannot be fought as a gender war. It has to be truth vs concoction and no one but Hrithik and Kangana will know what transpired or didn't between them. Taking sides would be sheer speculation.

What I do know is that in a quiet chat a few years ago, Hrithik had once told me that giving in to temptation was not the manly option. To be able to not give in was the better test of a man.

This actor is not the routine libido-flaunting hero. It's a hero the testosterone-powered film industry hasn't seen before. With a big release around the corner, there's going to be more coming from this differently wired hero. The first gong has just been sounded.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is a senior journalist and author