Kaali Billi is what Kareena Kapoor had called her during her shooting spat with Bipasha Basu in Ajnabee, a film about wife swapping by Abbas-Mustan, costarring Akshay Kumar and Bobby Deol.

Those were the days of Spitfire Kareena and Bengal's Black Beauty on the rise. Bipasha had then, for whatever reason, stoood with grace on that, very much like Shilpa Shetty in Big Brother taking on racist Jude Goody recently!

With Koffee With Karan second time around, each spisode is throwing up a quotable quote and raising a minor controversy, which only an anchor of Karan Johar's stature can generate.

Most recently, it was Bipasha Basu's turn to throw a barb, and that too at old foe Kareena. Since then Kareenma has truned a bit of a bheegi billi and has kissed and made up with Karan Johar too, almost cornering him to cast her in his next film.

And people were surprised to find a cool and calm Bipasha nonchalantly decimating Kareena now! Eyebrows shot up when Bipasha remarked that Kareena had "too many expressions" on her face when she performed onscreen.

If not from kaali billi to bheegi billi, this rapier thrust is being seen by the industry folks as a neat retaliation to Kareena's comment some weeks ago that John Abraham, Bipasha's beau, was "expression-less."

This has re-activated the whole Kareena-Bipasha war of Ajnabee days when in Switzerland, the two catty women had verbally clawed at each other over Kareena's costume designer lending a helping hand to Bipasha without Kareena's consent.

But Bipasha seems genuinely taken aback at this interpretation of her remark. "I'm not that kind of a person," she has taken pains to clarify, but then, who admits to being that kind of person!

"I certainly don't believe in tit for tat. And my episode of Koffee With Karan which was telecast on Sunday was recorded in the first week of December when I had no clue what Kareena would be saying about John." That is a very sound alibi indeed.

In any case everyone is entitled to her opinion, as Bipasha firmly believes. She has never been particularly bothered about critics' opinions about her acting talent either. So, if Kareena thinks John is expressionless she could not be bothered either.

"He's a grownup man. He can fight his own battles. I certainly won't jump in the fray for anyone else, not even my boyfriend," Bipasha has said.

Why did she then take on Kareena in the show anyway? Bipasha clarified that she was asked her opinion about Kareena's acting talent, and being a woman of her own mind, she simply and honestly stated what she felt. As she did on Tanushree Dutta and Sunny Deol. Thos too she inisisted were not meant to be offensive at all.

Bipasha was also asked who was her favourite costar, and she had singled out Saif Ali Khan and had said that when she had not acted with him yet. The same Ajnabee Abbas-Mustan's Race costars Saif.

Bipasha has just returned to Mumbai from a long stint of Ajnabee Abbas-Mustan's Race in Dubai in time to shoot for a shampoo ad. But when she mentioned Saif as her favourite, it was before the Race was on!