Ten years after they made their debut in J P Dutta’s Refugee, there’s the exciting rumour that Kareena Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan might act together again.

That they have not done another film with each other since 2000 is not because of a paucity of roles or offers from Bollywood to bring them back. The reason is more personal. Abhi’s broken engagement to Bebo’s sister Karisma in January 2003 led to a cooling off of relations between the Bachchans and the Kapoors. Naturally, filmmakers’ enthusiasm to see the hot young stars together dried up with that.

But so much of water has flown down the Mithi River since then and both, Abhi and Karisma, are happily married now. So why should not he accept a role against the sister? And so, Sanjay Leela Bhansali (who has always wanted to work with Kareena and vice versa) is reportedly looking at casting Abhishek in his film Hira Mandi opposite the film industry’s leading actress.

Bhansali will take up work on this film after he wraps up Guzaarish because, by then, Kareena will also be done with Ra One. Initially, it was thought the filmmaker might stick to Hrithik Roshan (his hero from Guzaarish) for Hira Mandi, but sources say Abhishek is the more likely candidate for the role. Incidentally, both Abhi and Bebo have admitted in separate interviews that if the right script came their way, they would be more than glad to work with each other.