Urmila Matondkar is frowning into the teacup these days. Well, you can't really blame her for feeling blue. The lissome lass is drooping because her Bollywood godfather and good friend Ram Gopal Varma is giving her the cold shoulder.A private screening of Rajkumar Santoshi`s Lajja, in which Urmila has done a dance number, saw an ‘unfeeling' ‘Ramu' ignoring her totally.

But what rubs salt into her wounds is Varma's growing interest in Manisha Koirala, who plays the protagonist in Lajja. Manisha figures in Ramu's next film, Company also, having replaced Rinke Khanna. The ‘Rangeela' girl does not figure in the cast at all. There is a silver lining to the Urmi cloud, however. Lajja director Santoshi soothed her jangled nerves by profusely thanking the actress for unhesitatingly agreeing to do a dance item in the film just as she had done in China Gate.

One thing leads to another, they say. Santoshi followed the thanks-giving bit by taking Ms Matondkar for dinner at the China Gardens the following week. What the cosy twosome were discussing, nobody has a clue. For all you know, they might have been talking about the female lead in Santoshi`s next film, Shaheed Bhagat Singh.