This week the gorgeous Kareena Kapoor flew to Bangkok to shoot an ad for a Pakistani product...only to return to Mumbai to rumours that she has been replaced by Deepika Padukone in Karan Johar's Shuddhi.

`All rubbish,` says a close friend of Kareena's. `Karan Johar and are like twins. Neither would do anything to hurt the other. Kareena is still very much part of Shuddhi. Pataa nahin yeh kisski buddhi hai. The film has been delayed for Hrithik's health reasons. But Kareena and Hrithik are all set to start the film in July.`

The ad in Bangkok for a cellphone brand was shot with hotshot Pakistani director Farooq Mannan, regarded as the Imtiaz Ali of Pakistani's ad world.

Says Kareena's friend, `She hadn't heard of Farooq Mannan...none of us had. Then she saw his last ad for the same cellphone company featuring Iman Ali(the actress from the highly-acclaimed Khuda Kay Liye) and Kareena was bowled over.`


For the ad that was shot in Bangkok Farooq Mannan invited a DOP from New York.

Says the source, `Kareena has been paid the kind of money that the Pakistani entertainment industry can't dream of doling out to their own models and actresses. Everything in the ad has been done with world-class technicians. This is the most expensive ad ever produced in Pakistan.`