We all know that at present Deepika Padukone is shooting for a Hollywood movie, XXX: The Return of Xander Cage, with Vin Diesel. She is in the far away shores of Los Angeles and that should have meant that the gossip columns back home would be silent on her for a while.
Think again. Because there seems to be a regular stream of rumours emanating about her. Some time back, a Bollywood gossip website reported in rather dramatic fashion that even as they were posting their report, Deepika Padukone was in former boyfriend’s Ranbir Kapoor’s house. Apparently, she had returned to Mumbai for a day on her way to a friend’s wedding in Sri Lanka and had gone to visit him, where they moved to the terrace and chatted away for hours.
A week later the same website reported that Ranbir had also gone to Los Angeles and had visit Deepika. The website wondered if the two were reuniting.
Deepika has in the past said that Ranbir had turned into a really good friend after their break up and that he was someone she called up anytime to chat. So, there might not be anything beyond that in these encounters, even if they really happened.
But what has got tongues wagging is the recent break up between Ranbir and Katrina and the reason for that is also speculated to be the amount of time he spent with Deepika during the promotions of Tamasha last year.
It is therefore natural to come out with a theory that the two might be reuniting. But hold on, there is still the question of Ranveer Singh, Deepika’s present boyfriend and their relationship seems to be going as strong as ever too.
In Sri Lanka, when she went for a wedding, her entire family was there and also accompanying them was Ranveer. Some media reports even speculated that this is a signal that they are planning to get married!
Now how do you manage to reconcile rumours of a separation and marriage going together? Maybe there is nothing to any of this but if there is then it has all the makings of a great Bollywood love triangle plot.

Death hoax

Rumours of deaths of film stars are nothing new. Last month Amitabh Bachchan was the victim of a death hoax, when reports on social media began to spring up that he had passed away.
It was triggered by someone posting on Facebook that ‘At about 11 a.m. ET on Tuesday (February 23, 2016), our beloved actor Amitabh Bachchan passed away. Amitabh Bachchan was born on October 11, 1942 in Allahabad. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page.’
Soon a clarification came from Amitabh’s side that it was a hoax. And now there has been one more such incident involving Shashi Kapoor where people on social media started saying that he was no more. Shashi has been ailing for some time and so there was a greater degree of probability for the hoax to be believed.
But Rishi Kapoor took to Twitter to clarify with this tweet, ‘Uncle Shashi Kapoor is doing fine. Hope this ends all the speculation about him. Some rumour mongering is happening’.


Mystery of the slap

You got to hand it to Sunny Leone; for someone who is choosy about interactions with the media she relentlessly makes news. This time too she made headlines for something that apparently never happened. She recently went to Gujarat to be part of an event celebrating the festival of Holi. A tabloid ran a story that when she was in the hotel someone accosted her in the corridor saying he was a journalist and then asked her what were her charges for a ‘night program’.
She is immediately said to have slapped the man and the report even had a quote from her husband confirming the incident and how Sunny would have to think a thousand times before coming to Gujarat.
But then came a curious u-turn. Sunny Tweeted the article saying, ‘ hahaha what lies....’ People are now puzzled over whether the incident happened or not. Her husband says that even the quote was made up; usually though, even tabloids don’t just cook up a quote.

Case in point

The interminable legal imbroglios of Salman Khan have once again caught up with him. Some time back, the Maharashtra government announced that it would go into appeal in the Supreme Court against the acquittal of Salman in a case of running over pavement dwellers while driving drunk.
And now a case of 1998 in which he is alleged to have hunted down an endangered animal is also coming to a closure after going through the slow legal system.
Final hearings are being slated and after that the verdict will follow. Here too Salman is claiming innocence and his stand in court has been that he has been framed by forest officials. Interestingly, he is charged with the Arms Act, of acquiring illegal weapons, the same law that was invoked against Sanjay Dutt.
This is however the lower court stage and even if it holds Salman guilty, he can go into appeal like earlier and the case will continue to drag on.
Meanwhile on every other front Salman is having the best time of his life. The latest news is that he will once again host the reality show Bigg Boss in its next season. The show is undoubtedly one of the most popular on Indian television and the credit largely goes to Salman’s presence as its host.
But having him does not come cheap. It has been reported that he will get a 30 percent hike over the last season’s fees. And we are not talking small change, it was already a really big number.
One source reported that he might get as much as Rs10 crore per episode that he is in. In dollar terms that is about US$1.5 million. Most human beings work their whole lives without earning what Salman gets in a day.

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