Caught in the heavy PR spiel about Shakespeare’s Othello taking its Hindi celluloid avatar as Bharadwaj’s Omkara, one nearly missed a sidelight here. Kareena Kapoor and Bipasha Basu whose catfights were legendary during a film called Ajnabee share the credit titles for the first time in Omkara.

The two actresses don’t share screen space in the film (they don’t have a single scene together) but the fact that Kareena didn’t stomp her feet and throw a tantrum over Bipasha being in the same film, shows a distinct thawing in the icicles between them. War had been declared in snowy Switzerland during the making of Ajnabee. Those were the heady days of diva Kareena Kapoor, packaged by formidable mom Babita as Bollywood’s only true sensation. That was the time Kareena carried with her the arrogance of being Karisma’s sister and the imperiousness of the Kapoor bloodline. Besides, they were poised to join the Bachchan khandaan too.

Up in the Alps, there was a roar over dress designer Vikram Phadnis when Babita reportedly slapped the guy for daring to help out a raw newcomer called Bipasha Basu. He was put on the first flight back to Mumbai. The Kapoor mom and daughter, who really thought they had the (film) world at their feet, then trained their guns on co-star Bobby Deol who had spoken up for the dress designer. Imagine the gall of this Kapoor girl ? she’d actually proceeded to put the Deol on her banned list and switched off all communication with him!

In this off-with-their-heads scenario, how could a girl, a new model trying her hand at acting, escape the wrath of the mighty Kapoor women on the warpath? Kareena titled Bipasha ‘kaali billi’ and, instead of creating a conducive atmosphere for the newcomer, she did everything possible to make her feel unwanted and small.

But our Bengali belle proved a tough cookie. Despite the attempts to demoralise her and put her down, Bipasha Basu made a fine, confident debut in Ajnabee (in fact, she made a better impact than Kareena in it), and consolidated that success with sizzling blockbusters like Jism and Raaz. After Ajnabee , she held her head high, got a boyfriend like John Abraham (who is lusted after by half the industry), neatly avoided anything called Kareena and charted her own success story.

Today, the unequal ratings that existed during Ajnabee have been balanced. Bipasha is just as big a celebrity as Kareena and has a better hit rate than the Kapoor girl. Kareena, on the other hand, is slowly learning to swallow her pride and mend fences with those who matter. She showered attention on sensational new star Hrithik Roshan after shunning him (she had walked out of his debut film Kaho Naa?Pyaar Hai, preferring to debut with sis Karisma’s ‘big catch’ Abhishek Bachchan in Refugee); she made up with Bobby Deol (they did Suneel Darshan’s Dost recently); she’s back in Karan Johar’s camp (she’d acted pricey with his dad and lost the lead role in Kal Ho Naa Ho which took Preity Z up several notches) and, a long time ago, she stopped calling a certain co-star ‘kaali billi’!

Hey, psst!

* Bipasha’s boyfriend John is currently facing what she did as a newcomer. The testosterone territory is still bristling with Salman Khan refusing to shoot any scene with John. Ravi Chopra, whose film Baabul is unfortunately caught in the crossfire, reportedly asked Salman’s father, Salim Khan, “I haven’t a clue who’s right and who’s wrong, let them do what they like off the sets. But what’s my film got to do with their fight?” The Baabul unit took off for London to complete their work. But news trickles in that a song which was to feature both hunks had to be reworked because the Khan with the brawn refused to be in the same frame as John Abraham!

* Spotted outside the ICU at Breach Candy hospital, Dimple Kapadia who is keeping 24/7 vigil over sis Simple (said to be losing her battle to cancer which was not detected and treated in its early stage). Looking after both sisters are two married men with families of their own. Sunny Deol ? Dimple’s loyal lover ? goes into the ICU wearing a mask and comes out distraught over Simple’s condition. Also on the scene is a mild-mannered Gujarati businessman (married, with family) who caringly stands by second wife Simple (she wears his mangalsutra).

* The Saif-Rosa romance which hit turbulence recently is flying smooth again. They walked in hand-in-hand to watch Saif’s sibling, Soha Ali Khan’s next release Ahista Ahista at a private late night screening. All’s well at the moment in this paradise.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is managing editor of Movie Mag International