/> Shamita Shetty woke up on Tuesday to stories about her spat at a Mumbai pub with starlet Kim Sharma.

"This was worse than fiction," she giggles, apparently not affected by what she calls a bizarre fabrication.

"I'd have let such an unnatural rumour die a natural death. But I don't want this fictitious fight with Ms Sharma to be referred to among the most famous cat-fights of Bollywood. Please! I'd rather be remembered by my work. And that's why I've been keeping out of the news, to focus on what I'm here for."

Laughing, Shamita catches her breath. "I'm not a cat. I don't indulge in cat-fights. My sister Shilpa and I've been brought up with certain values. We don't believe in creating scenes in public. At first when I read it I laughed. It was all so weird. And so frivolous."

Shamita admits to being at the pub where the fight with Ms Sharma ostensibly happened. "I was in the private section of the pub with my friends. But there was no conversation with Mr Yuvraj Singh. I knew he and Kim were there.

But I didn't run into them at any point in the evening. And there was certainly no finger shown by Ms Kim Sharma at me. Do you think I'm someone to take such behaviour? I don't know whom she showed her finger to. But it sure as hell wasn't me."

She adds, "I don't know Kim that well. Ages ago I did a film Mohabbatein with her. She was my co-actor, period. I don't know her, I've never socialized with her. It isn't my nature to speak up against anyone the way she has. I may be irrelevant to her scheme of things. But did she have to speak in that nasty way about me?"

Shamita concludes, "The whole incident shows me up in a poor light. My friends have been calling up. Luckily my family is with me. And we've all laughed it off. In our industry some actresses love talking about making up, breaking up and having cat-fights. It's so peculiar.

No one can show me the finger and get away with it. We don't need to be rocket scientists to see why this story was planted, and by whom. I'm preparing to shoot for Cash. I don't need cat-fights to get noticed."