South siren Shriya Saran and Rana Daggubati have split. The decision to break their five-year-old relationship (they managed to keep it discreet for the first three years) came after Shriya learnt about his proximity to Bipasha Basu during the shooting of Dum Maro Dum, in which he debuts in Bollywood. 

Shriya lost trust in her man after rumours of Rana-Bips first surfaced. Then came news of the Bips-John split and her worst fears were confirmed. An insider says, "Though Shriya and Rana never made their relationship public, everyone knew about it. It was understood that they would end up together someday. However, Rana started getting close to Bipasha and that's when Shriya decided to end the relationship rather than wait around for him to outgrow his infatuation. Shriya and Rana are not even on talking terms anymore, even though she is still close to his family." 

Bips speak 

Says Bipasha, "It's preposterous! Surely a gimmick of some sorts. Rana isn't even my 3 am friend as reported. God knows where all this is coming from... give me a break and some respect, please! Sometimes it's tiring to know about your own self through papers. Bizarre! Rana is a newcomer who is paired opposite me just like Ranbir Kapoor was in Bachna Aae Haseeno and Neil Nitin Mukesh was in Aa Dekhe Zaraa. I believe in making a newcomer comfortable and have a rapport so our work is good together. When I was a newcomer, people made me comfortable by being nice and friendly. Why do people have to read into everything? I'm friends with Ranbir and Neil too, so is that wrong 

as well?" 

Bollywood beauty Bipasha Basu is all set to romance Pearl Harbor star Josh Hartnett in her first international film Singularity.

Set in different time periods and directed by Roland Joffe, famous for his movies City of Joy, The Killing Fields and Captivity, the new film will see Bipasha playing an Indian she-warrior, named Tulaja.

The script has been written by Ajey Jhankar and other than Bipasha and Abhay Deol, the movie has a host of international stars including Star Trek actor Chris Pine, Bond girl Olga Kurylenko and Christopher Egan among others. Bipasha will fly to Brisbane soon to rehearse with Hartnett and then start filming from 3rd week of November through last week of December, a statement said.

Joffe was in India in September for the casting of the epic romance and plans to shoot a major portion of the film in the country since the story revolves around Marathas in 1780s. The movie traces an impossible love set across two time periods and continents centered around four characters a British officer in colonial India, the Indian woman he falls in love with, an American marine biologist and his lover, who is a researcher trapped in a wrecked British merchant ship. Only the power of a ring can transcend time and save a life. Joffe, who captured the life of Kolkata's slums in City of Joy starring Shabana Azmi, Patrick Swayze and Om Puri, hopes to release the film by next year.

Paul Breuls' Belgian production is producing the film while Corsan World Sales is handling international sales. Anchor Bay holds the distribution rights for the US, UK and Australia.

Earlier, Aishwarya Rai was rumoured to star in the $33 million project.

After sizzling on Bollywood screen for almost a decade, dusky beauty Bipasha Basu has signed her first international project -- English-French director Roland Joffe's Singularity. The 31-year-old is extremely excited and admits she does have butterflies in her stomach. "I am very excited...but have to admit that I am also a little nervous. Everything happened really fast," Bipasha told IANS over phone from Mumbai.

Bipasha met Joffe in a chance encounter at the Taj Land's End Hotel in Mumbai in September.

The $33 million movie, written by Ajey Jhankar, is a riveting tale of an impossible love set across two time periods and continents.

It is set in the backdrop of the First Anglo-Maratha War of the 18th century and revolves around four characters - a British officer in colonial India and the Indian woman he falls in love with, an American marine biologist and his researcher lover -- who gets trapped in a wrecked British merchant ship.

The film will be shot in Australia and India. Bipasha will be flying to Brisbane in the first week of November.

Bipasha, who will be missing Diwali for the initial rehearsals for the film, says she would have loved to get some more time to prepare for her role.

"I am not getting much of preparation time right now. I have been given just eight days to prepare for underwater scenes and horse riding...I wish I had at least a month's time for preparation," she said.

As much as she would have liked to, Bipasha is also not getting much time to brush up on her history.

"There is just no time before I fly out! I have finished all my pending endorsement assignments and now I will try and grasp whatever I can there itself," she said.

Nevertheless, she is looking forward to working with Hollywood actors.

"The script is fantastic. They have a lot of expertise in their field...it's going to be a whole lot of hard work, and it's going to be great fun to adapt to their system of working," she said.

Singularity also stars Bollywood actor Abhay Deol besides Hollywood stars Chris Pine, Josh Hartnett, Olga Kurylenko, Christopher Egan and Shane Briant, among others.

Bipasha will shoot from the third week of November till the last week of December in Brisbane.

Her upcoming Indian projects include Dum Maaro Dum and Abbas-Mustan's Players.

Bipasha is glad that Abbas-Mustan, who gave her a launchpad with 2001 film Ajnabee, were accommodating enough to adjust their dates so that she could give her nod to Singularity.

The film is tentatively slated for a 2011 release.

Bollywood actress Bipasha Basu today launched Aircel GSM mobile in Rajasthan completing pan-India footprint for the service provider with lowest rates and packages, including pocket internet.

Basu, who made her first call from the newly-launched phone to Aircel chief operating officer Gurdeep Singh, said Rajasthan has made tremendous development and growth in IT sector, and will welcome this very service.

Singh said Rajasthan was the last destination to come with Aircel, and it will cover 23 districts with an investment of Rs500 crore in first phase, and Rs300 crore more in 2011-12.

Singh said Aircel would be providing innovative pocket internet cards to customers for unlimited browsing for a period of 30 days at Rs98.

He also announced the first 'Pocketapps Store' in association with Infosys this year, with a weekly charge of Rs7 with free download.

Besides, pre-paid, post-paid, inbult vas and data, international calling cards, and business pack for SMEs would be provided with new plans on competitive prices, Singh said.

Talking about her love for the state, Basu said: "Rajasthan's food, dresses and designs are great. We all love Rajasthan. It is full of culture, beauty and I always love to visit the desert state."

On Aircel's 'Save Our Tigers' campaign, she said that it was cruel that tiger population is dwindling due to alleged poaching. The programme needscomplete support of the government and non-government organisations.

"I am sure the new generation must be catching up with the campaign," she said.

When asked whether she comes on Facebook, Basu said social networking is her passion, as it keeps her hooked to her audience.