"There's a man in Ram Kapoor's aka Jai Walia's life," published a leading tabloid along with a picture of him kissing his close friend Naman Shaw. All hell broke loose, calls started pouring in, people started to quetion Kapoor's sexuality.

After all he has been happily married to Gautami Gadgil for four years now. Journos started to hound his wife for the answers and when things started to go out of hand she finally obliged as well.

"Understandably our relatives and friends will want an explanation. I'm aware that answering their questions will be difficult," accepts Gautami.

But she asserts that she isn't bothered about what people think about her husband. "I'm really concerned about Naman," she says.

"Ram and I have been married for the past four years. He is a good husband and a great father. We have a beautiful daughter Sia. But my heart goes out to Naman. He is a new actor and this story might just shoo away all the girls around him."

But the entire controversy hardly perturbs Kapoor himself.

He says, "I am very comfortable with my sexuality. So, being labelled a gay or a bisexual makes no difference to me. But I am not angry with the report. The press has the right to write whatever they want."

I love playing pranks on the sets. We have a blast while working. And that's what got printed. I had a great laugh when I read it."

So what is his stance on homosexuality? Ram asserts, "I have many friends who are homosexuals. It's a matter of sexual preference. I feel sad when a stigma is attached to it. But I do have a problem when there's a public display of affection."

Ask him about how his family reacted to it and Ram says, "My mother was shocked but Gautami is used to me. She laughed and called me ‘mad'."

While many people are amused by the entire episode, others consider it as a cheap publicity stunt.

"Actors in this industry are known to stoop to such levels for publicity," remarks Shakti Anand while Manini Mishra asserts, "Perhaps they share a genuine relationship. So, I would like to give him benefit of the doubt, and not pass it off as a publicity stunt."