The first song of Anurag Kashyap's 'Bombay Velvet' was supposed to be launched at a Mumbai five-star last evening, but was called off at the last minute. The film's publicist claims it was cancelled due to lead actress Anushka Sharma's absence. However, the actress' spokesperson maintains that she had informed the makers about her unavailability a month in advance.

"Anushka was not available on this date and had communicated it to the team. When Ranbir got to know this, he decided to wait for Anushka to come back to town," says the film's spokesperson. The actress was in Bangalore yesterday to cheer for beau Virat Kohli during an IPL match.

A source close to Anushka says the entire episode reeked of a bad publicity gimmick. "This is a new low in publicity. They will not dare to do this to an A-list actor. Moreover, the invite clearly mentioned that only Ranbir will attend the song launch along with Anurag and Karan Johar. Where was her name?" asks the source.


Anushka's spokesperson says the actress is on a scheduled break and had informed the producers about it a month in advance. "So, there is no question of an event being cancelled due to her absence when she was never supposed to be there in the first place. We are shocked to hear that this is the reward she gets for her professionalism."

Earlier, Ranbir had shot for a promotional video for the film trailer's launch during the cricket World Cup and Anushka was apparently kept in the dark. "Though she was hurt, she chose to stay mum then," adds a source.