/> It's customary for two stars to be pitched against one another in real life whenever they are paired on screen.The last time we heard murmurs of discontent was when Bipasha and Deepika apparently couldn't stand one another while shooting Bachna Ae Haseenon.

But John and Abhishek get along like a house on fire. To their regret they had to shoot a music video for Dostana separately.

Producer Karan Johar who just landed in Mumbai after two weeks of location hunting in Los Angeles says the song Maa da ladla was shot during his absence. "I left it entirely to my director Tarun Mansukhani and to the choreographer Feroz (who's Farah Khan's assistant for ten years). So you'll have to ask Tarun what happened."

Tarun Mansukhani has his own explanation for why Abhishek and John shot the song separately.

"I deliberately didn't shoot the song with John and Abhishek together. I wanted at least this one song Maa da ladla to look different from the rest of the film where they're constantly together, fooling around, chumming it up. They shot individually, so the masti of the rest of the movie was missing on the sets."

Tarun trails off sadly, and then perks up. "The last shooting before this was for Desi girl where all of us were together. It was so much fun."

The Maa da ladla song was shot on 15, 16 and 17 October at Filmistan studios and onlookers watched Abhishek and John arrive on separate days.

"This is a music video which we'll use for promotion and probably for the end titles, "explains Tarun.

Says Abhishek, "It was wonderful to shoot with John Abraham again after Dhoom. It was fun on the sets because we were all friends."

Adds John, "Abhishek is not co-star or colleague. He's a friend. I dote on him. I love him to death. We never compete. We complement each other in Dostana. We share a great chemistry. Abhishek and I are a couple in the film."