THE GREAT BOLLYWOOD GOSSIP

They always deny it when the news leaks out, but then shut up and look sheepish when the news goes public. They say that marriages and relationships in Bollywood are easily consumed. Indeed.

These relationships do not last long. So no one wants to talk about it, because they are never sure about it in the first place. They do not know whether a one-night stand would result in an affair, followed by an engagement and a marriage and then even by a divorce. Sex, casting couch, one night stands, second wives, Bollywood denizens have denied them all a little too often.

Tanushree Dutta has still been denying that she and director Aditya Dutt are dating.

Ditto with Mahima Chaudhary, who continued to deny her marriage until she got pregnant and delivered the child of Bobby, a business man.

Mahesh Bhatt has often said that he is a "bastard" as his father Nanabhai Bhatt had married his mother despite having a first wife. Hence he was an illegitimate son. Nanabhai Bhatt denied that Mahesh was illegitimate as his marriage to Mahesh's mother was before 1955, when the Hindu Marriage Act came into place. Strange story!

Aamir Khan kept on denying a little too hard that he had no affair with anyone and that he and first wife Reena were together, till the time the papers of his divorce came out in the open. Interestingly, he even denied that, but went ahead to marry Kiran who is much younger to him.

Rishi Kapoor once said, "We act as if we are in love with each other while doing a few scenes in the films. It is not difficult for two artistes to fall in love with each other." A sentence like that coming from an actor who has acted opposite the maximum newcomers in Bollywood is rather symbolic of the pitfalls the relationships of a married actor has in Bollywood.

Even as Viveik Oberoi's girlfriend Gurpreet cried herself hoarse that Bollywood had consumed her relationship with Viveik, one can remember how Pooja Bedi shouted from the rooftops that Aditya Panscholi had raped her maid and thus ended her relationship with him.

They say that Sushmita Sen broke Vikram Bhatt's house, Rani Mukerji broke Govinda's house, Mahima Chaudhary almost broke Ajay Devgan's marriage to Kajol and now Kiran Rao has broken Aamir Khan's household. It was also said that Meenakshi Seshadri and husband Harish Mysore had broken up. But Meenakshi's father was quick to deny everything, putting things in the right perspective.

Karisma Kapoor must have gone mad trying to deny that she was married to Abhishek Bachchan till the time she got engaged to the lad and the news came out. No one was ready to believe her. Indian film stars like politicians have no credibility. No one wants to believe them. The reason being, all these film stars have lied through their teeth about their affairs, marriage etc.

Raveena Tandon denied that she was engaged to Akshay Kumar. When he got married to Twinkle Khanna after ditching her and later Shilpa Shetty, Raveena had to accept the engagement part.

When Juhi Chawla got pregnant, she had to agree that she was married to industrialist Jai Mehta. She had denied the entire episode till that time. When a journalist broke the news of Boney Kapoor marrying his 'rakhi sister' Sridevi, Kapoor called and abused the journalist. He also asked the newspaper to tender an apology which they refused. A month later when it was discovered that Sridevi was pregnant, Boney Kapoor came around.

But Sridevi never agreed that she was earlier married and then got divorced from the already married Mithun Chakraborthy. They fought and broke up after Mithun in an interview to a gossip journalist revealed that he had married Sridevi.

Saif and Amrita Singh also did not reveal their marriage. When a journalist wrote about it in a popular Mumbai tabloid, they called up and abused the newspaper stating that it was false. Their denials also appeared in the columns of some so-called star columnists. But these columnists too fell flat on their face for supporting Saif and his much older wife when the news was confirmed later.

Denials come very easily to the stars. One can recall the most famous denials of all - Dilip Kumar's lie about his once paramour Asma. He denied his second marriage to Asma. And when his 'nikaahnama' was published as proof, he had no answer!

Ditto with Raj Babbar. He denied his marriage to Smita Patil. But his wife Nadira threatened that she would have him and Smita arrested. At that time Smita delivered a child and died. It was a cruel way of dispelling justice. Smita's child was accepted by Nadira. Later, there was news of Rekha marrying Raj Babbar, which appeared in Evening News, an eveninger from the Times of India group. Rekha denied the wedding, but Babbar preferred to remain silent. Rekha, however, has never denied her love for Amitabh, though Bachchan has never accepted that in public.

Dharmendra's wife Prakash Kaur never said anything when he married Hema Malini. So Dharmendra or Hema never had to deny the marriage. The Zeenat Aman-Sanjay Khan marriage was also denied by the couple. Sanjay alias Abbas Khan was already married to Zarine. The split also happened after Khan beat up Aman in a hotel in full public view. Zeenat then married the much-married Mazhar Khan. The affair was denied till she actually married him.

But Nana Patekar has never denied his relationships. Luckily no one dares to ask him about his affairs thanks to his temperament. He is still married to Neelkanti, though they never live together. He has had affairs with Vaishali Dandekar, Manisha Koirala and Ayesha Jhulka, but never married any of them, as a divorce would affect his son Malhar.

In the Kapoor family Randhir Kapoor and Babita have separated, as they could not get along. But Rishi and Neetu have stayed together, despite the latter alleging that he beat her up often. Raj Kapoor and wife Krishna have been together till the showman's death. Ditto with the maverick Shammi and his first wife Geeta Bali. Shammi is still holding on dearly to his second wife Neela Devi, who he married after Geeta's death. These Kapoors have always been silent about their family matters just like the Deols and the Bachchans who have maintained a studied silence when it comes to their relationships. Strange are the ways of show biz.