While Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapur are busy saying that it was not them in the pictures, another story is fast gaining momentum.

According to reports, both were aware that they had been photographed kissing and that the pictures were to appear in the Mumbai tabloid the next day.

Sourcs say that Shahid had telephoned Mid-Day multimedia director Tariq Ansari and warned him against publishing the pictures. Shahid apparently was had been tipped off by his former secretary Gautam, who heard about the pictures a day before they were to be published.

Kareena and Shahid maintain the pictures are morphed and that they would sue. Mid-Day has denied that it has doctored the pictures.

"The material in question is not a series of pictures but a video clip shot on a mobile phone. The video clip is present with Mid-Day and with television channels and shows the couple at the restaurant very clearly," the tabloid said in a statement.

"There is no question of the paper doing anything illegal. We do not agree that the photographs are obscene. We understand the reasons Kareena is upset but we do not think the issue is legal," the statement added.