“Abhishek and Vivek seem to have reached an understanding of sorts. And their recent meeting in Bangkok for the IIFA awards was a real turning point. Abhishek was always meant to do an item song in Mission but with the recent response that Vivek received at the awards ceremony Abhishek asked Apoorva to involve Vivek in the video too,” says a source from the film, “This will be the first time that the two will share screen space together. When Vivek performed at the IIFAs he got a roaring response from the audiences. And so Abhishek felt that it was only in the benefit of the film to include him in the video.”

In fact although the entire film was canned, Lakhia kept Bachchan’s item song for the end, as he didn’t want there to be any issue between Abhishek and Vivek. But when Abhishek himself told Apoorva, the director was pleasantly surprised.

“Abhishek and Apoorva are very close. Abhishek is always a part of Apoorva’s film in one form or the other. So Abhishek felt no qualms in asking Apoorva to include Vivek in the frame as well. And Apoorva who has always been a supporter of Vivek felt this was a genuine step in the right direction to put an end to any kind of misunderstanding that is still being projected between the two,” says the source.

This is for the first time after Abhishek Bachchan’s wedding to Aishwarya Rai that Abhi & Vivek will be coming together for a song. Earlier, Abhishek Bachchan had consistently refused to share the same stage or screen space with Vivek. For example, Apoorva Lakhia had tried hard to showcase Abhishek Bachchan with Vivek Oberoi together in his last film ‘Shootout At Lokhandwala’, but Abhi never consented to that.

The buzz doing the rounds in the industry is that Abhi and Vivek seem to have buried the hatchet and moved on in life. But for breaking the ice between the two, the credit must go to Vivek, who had attended the funeral of Abhishek’s grandmother Teji Bachchan in December last. This gesture touched the Bachchans and they began reciprocating positively.

However, another theory doing the rounds in trade circles is that Bachchans are trying to attract Vivek Oberoi etc in an effort to end their isolation in the film industry. Shah Rukh, Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shatrughan Sinha etc are already in the opposition camp due to one or other reason and keeping away from Vivek Oberoi, who has become a force to reckon with after Shootout… was not a good policy. And so they are trying to woo Vivek, Akshay Kumar, Kareena Kapoor to combat the combined might of Khans.

Says a source, “Ever since Karisma Kapoor broke off with Abhishek Bachchan, the Kapoors and Bachchans haven’t been on talking terms. In fact, Abhishek kept refusing films with Kareena. But this time at Bangkok, a change was noticed in the Bachchans’ attitudes. Kareena was shocked when she found herself being invited to an informal get-together in Abhishek and Ash’s room at 3am! Abhishek was very warm and gracious in his invite. It was as if nothing had happened. But Bebo is still smarting from the Bachchans’ rebuffs and rejected their olive branch and hung out with Saif and her friends like Manish Malhotra, Karan Johar and Shabina Khan.” It has been a Bachchans vs The Rest Of The Stars (Aamir, Shatru, SRK, Kareena Kapoor etc) scenario for quite some time now. It now appears that they want to make peace with as many as they could.