By Subhash K Jha

It's been a long and chequered history of disrupted and fractured association between Ram Gopal Varma and Anurag Kashap. After they collaborated on Satya they had parted acrimoniously. But after showering scathing criticism on Varma his ex-protegee Kashyap has mended the fences with Varma.

And the first sign of a rapprochement? The trailer of Kashyap's That Girl In Yellow Boots has been attached to Ram Gopal Varma's much talked-about Not A Love Story releasing this Friday, and not without resistance from the normally-resilient Ramu.

So far it was unthinkable that Ramu and Kashyap would ever come together in any way, least of all within the confines of one feature film.

Ramu, it should be recalled, had launched Kashyap's career as a writer in Satya. The film got Kashyap instant recognition. But like many of Ramu's protégées Kashyap chose to move out of the Varma camp soon after Satya. Kashyap wrote two more film Shool and Kaun for Varma and then left loudly vocalizing his disapproval of Ramu's over-prolific output in recent years.

Not that Varma cared. But then he made sure that he never crossed Kashyap's path, at least creatively.

The attachment of Kashyap's trailer to Varma's film surprises many.

Says a source, "Ramu being Ramu has no time for grudges. Also, he takes no interest in post-production and marketing. But this time he left it all to his producer Sunil Bohra who informed Ramu of the decision to attach the trailer of That Girl In Yellow Boots to Not A Love Story. "

Ramu denies holding any grudges against Kashyap in spite of the latter's scathing criticism.

"I've said this repeatedly. I don't give anyone ‘a chance'. I am not doing anyone favours by signing new talent. I sign talented people because I need them for my cinema. Beyond that I don't care where they go or what they feel about me. "