Item girl Kashmira Shah, former Miss University World, has come out fighting in Bollywood’s war of words with Rakhi Sawant. “I have nine hits from Jungle, Yes Boss, Aankhen and many other films,” she says. “What does she have? She knows that if she can get into a controversy with me, she will gain popularity.” Kashmira then went on to suggest, surely erroneously, that Rakhi Sawant would do almost anything to attract publicity.
In case we are in any doubt about Kashmira’s opinion of Rakhi, she then added, “I’d like to be known as an actor who can dance, unlike Rakhi who is a trying to be an actor from a dancer. I love to hate her and I hate to love her.”
Kashmira was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Award for her role in Jungle and of course starred opposite Jason Lewis in My Bollywood Bride. Her next film is Osama with Kamal Hassan.
Rakhi and Kashmira’s enmity towards each other began with their appearances in reality shows like Big Boss and Nach Baliye 3 where their relationship, initially friendly, deteriorated rapidly. Kashmira is currently playing an item girl in the musical City of Dreams, an item girl called Rakhi. Is her part based on Rakhi Sawant perhaps? “It’s not difficult to play Rakhi because she is just one-dimensional. But I think it would be difficult to play me,” replies Kashmira enigmatically.
It seems unlikely that the shy and diffident Rakhi will respond to such an outrageous attack.