The Bips-Kareena chronicles - Rajeev Masand

Courtesy: Open Magazine

When Bipasha Basu flew to Istanbul recently to shoot her cameo in Race 2, Kareena Kapoor was allegedly having sleepless nights back home in Mumbai. Turns out Kareena was uncomfortable about the fact that her boyfriend Saif Ali Khan was going to be in close proximity with his ex, Bipasha, in a foreign land away from her own safe gaze. Unit members say Kareena was constantly on the phone line with Saif, and might have also planted a few spies on the set to ensure that Saif and Bipasha shared nothing more than a professional rapport while shooting together.

As invariably happens, news of Kareena’s insecurity reached Bipasha’s ears, who was thoroughly amused by her shenanigans.

You might remember, Saif and Bipasha famously ‘got close’ while filming Race some years ago, before he hooked up with Kareena shortly after. And it’s widely believed in Bollywood circles that Kareena specifically asked Saif to sever all ties with Bipasha when they became a couple.

Although one hears they’re civil when they run into each other now, it’s no secret that there’s no love lost between Kareena and Bipasha who famously clashed while filming Ajnabee in Europe many moons ago. Kareena made rude remarks about Bipasha’s dusky complexion, even dubbing her kaali billi on the set, which prompted co-stars Bobby Deol and Akshay Kumar to jump to Bipasha’s defence.

Bipasha, meanwhile, who was dropped from Race 2, agreed to make a cameo in the film on the insistence of her Ajnabee directors Abbas-Mustan who requested her to show up in Turkey to film a scene in which her character is bumped off. Also present in Istanbul was Bipasha’s ex, John Abraham, who stars in the sequel, but was reportedly not on the set when Bipasha filmed her scene. Awkward!