It looked like Ash was back, at every level. Oberoi was publicly squiring her around; on the professional front, Hollywood appeared to beckon, as she did a well-received appearance in Gurinder Chadha's Bride and Prejudice, was reportedly approached for a Bond project, appeared on TIME magazine's cover as 'The new face of Bollywood', made it to David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey and pretty much every other top show in town.
Abhishek, meanwhile, discovered the advantage of failure -- he was under the radar, no one expected much and when he turned in a more than competent performance as Lallan in Mani Ratnam's Yuva, he blew everyone away.
The unkind section of the industry was still muttering 'fluke' and crediting Abhishek's performance to the skills of the director, when the actor socked in the sucker-punch, with Dhoom.
Through it all, the Ash-Vivek romance blossomed -- or so Vivek said, for Ash never, ever, openly admitted to being romantically involved with him.
He was there at her bedside when she suffered an accident in course of a shoot, he was at her side for awards functions and pretty much everywhere else -- and he was out there in every film magazine, talking of his love and making marriage plans.
The unkind, again, said he should have made good movies instead. Kyon Ho Gaya Na! flopped; Kisna, under the banner of no less than Subhash Ghai, vanished without a trace -- and Vivek Oberoi found his star on the wane.
Don't Miss: Spotted! Abhishek, Ash in Paris
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