/> Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Tthi is doing quite well without the original Tulsi, thank you.

The exit of Smriti Irani and the entry of Gautami Gadgil as Tulsi was supposed to plummet the TRPs of the popular serial.

To everyone's surprise the serial's popularity has shown no downward trend.

And now Ekta Kapoor is in two minds about her original plan to bring back Smriti Irani after a while.

Says a very powerful source from Balajee, "Everyone was convinced that Gautami Gadgil would be hard to accept as Tulsi. Even Ekta was convinced Gautami would be at the most, adequate and that Smriti Irani's demands would have to be met after re-negotation. But now Ekta is having second thoughts."

Many versions on the friction between Ekta and Smriti have been propounded.

But the real reason behind the fall-out runs deeper than has so far been made public.

Says the source, "It started eight months ago when Smriti went to Ekta's mom Mrs Shobha Kapoor and said she didn't want Balajee to produce her serial Thodisi Zameen Thoda Aasman.

When Ekta heard this she blew her top. Ekta had stepped in to get the channel Sony's approval since they had refused to take Thodisi Zameen without Ekta's backing. Then Smriti threatened to quit Kyunki Saas and Ekta made it clear that this arm-twisting won't work. Smriti stayed on.

But began to act difficult. When she had a play abroad she again came to Ekta saying she wanted to quit. Once she was shooting for Viruddh and she sent a message to the Kyunkii... unit saying she couldn't come because she was unwell. We sent our unit to her Viruddh set to shoot for Kyunki... She was extremely rude and dismissive.

In the last few months of her tenure as Tulsi Smriti Irani shot for no more than six days a month, and that too for a few hours every day. Smriti was paid by the hour rather than by the day."

Continues the source, "Ekta kept her peace because she believed Kyunkii....would suffer seriously without Smriti. Then something happened that blew Ekta's mind."

The Balajee source clams up. But the flash point between Ekta and Smriti was reached when at a meeting at the Star office Smriti behaved very rudely with Mrs Shobha Kapoor."

That's when Ekta decided enough was enough.

"Smriti was flying high. She thought Viruddh would rule the world. Ekta made up her mind to ask Smriti to leave. Before she could take action, Viruddh tanked. Keeping the best interests of the serial in mind Ekta invited Smriti for coffee and re-negotiation at a café near the Balajee office. Smriti and Ekta had an amicable meeting where Ekta suggested that Smriti take a three-month break from Kyunkii...."

In reality Ekta wanted to see in these three months if another Tulsi would work on Kyunkii Saas....

And now Gautami Gadgil has been accepted as Tulsi. The ratings of Kyunkii have been steady and growing. "This, Smriti never expected. She thought no one would be expected as Tulsi.

At the same time Sandeep Sickand at Sony and Anshuman Swami at Applause Entertainment have been asked to leave from their companies because of losses suffered over Viruddh, etc.

Apparently Sickand has now fallen out with Smriti Irani and openly blames her for his problems at Sony. Sickand has been sending feelers to Balajee to return to his old job."

But will Ekta take Smriti back as Tulsi? "The entire Balajee team has suffered hell trying to trail Smriti wherever she would agree to shoot. When Smriti's 'friend' claimed she had suffered a miscarriage working on Kyunkii.... Ekta felt like killing off Tulsi in the serial. Will she take Smriti back? It seems doubtful. A final call will be taken only in September," concludes the

When contacted Ekta laughs off the whole rumour of Smriti's impending comeback. "Smriti hasn't told me when she wants to come back on the show. But Gautami has been widely accepted as Tulsi. That's a big triumph for us."