Actress Bipasha Basu was conspicuous by her absence on Sunday evening, as her co-stars of an upcoming film attended the red carpet premiere of MI-4 hosted by actor Anil Kapoor for Hollywood hottie Tom Cruise. While Sonam Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan along with directors Abbas Mustan and co-actor Neil Nitin Mukesh went up to share the stage with Cruise and Anil, one wondered where the other lead of the film, Bips was.

Her absence set the gossip mills churning out rumours in B-Town about an alleged rivalry with Sonam. In fact, there were already rumours afloat of them outdoing each other on screen too, even as the two actors have denied it constantly.Bips’ not attending the do has only fanned them further.

But insiders still insist that all is well between the two and it was a prior professional commitment that kept Bipasha away. “The only reason Bipasha skipped the date with Cruise is that she was busy shooting for Jodi Breakers in Goa,” said a source from the production house of Players. A source close to Bipasha too reiterates this saying that Bipasha is at present on a schedule for her film with R Madahavan in Goa. “She was already in Goa for the film’s shoot and even recently met Helen there. So, there’s no way that she could have made it to Mumbai leaving her shoots,” says the source.

However, another source on sets lets in that interestingly, the actor though in Goa for the shoot, was not shooting this weekend. “Bipasha had a break of two days and had the entire weekend to herself,” confirms the source, which makes one wonder why then did Bipasha not try and fly out for this event, which she could. On being asked about this, a source close to Bipasha revealed that her good pals Deanne Pandey and Rocky S were expected to drop by and the plans had already been made much in advance.

“Bipasha had already worked out her weekend plans with her good friends and everyone knows that she really values them and are always top priority. There’s no question of her feeling sidelined and hence not wanting to attend the event. In fact, she and Sonam and Abhishek are all really good friends,” says the source. Skeptics however point out that flying in the city and out was very much possible even if she decided to hang out with her buddies on Saturday, considering this was being pegged as an important event in Bollywood calendar. Wonder what Bips has to say to that?