Marriage talk hampers Geeta Basra`s career!

Mumbai: Geeta Basra, who is said to be dating cricketer Harbhajan Singh, finds engagement-marriage rumours infuriating because these can harm her career, which is yet to take off.

"He (Harbhajan) is a dear friend. Look, everyone in this industry has a personal life. I am not saying I am single or not single. Beyond that, whether we are getting married or not...I am not getting into all that. I am here to work really hard. And it hurts to hear my hard work being trivialised by such rumours," she said. "I`ve shot a terrific item song for `Zilla Ghaziabad`. Rumours of an engagement or marriage at this juncture would definitely harm my career. There is no shaadi on the anvil. Such talk will take my career 10 steps backwards. I can`t afford that. When producers hear such rumours, they will obviously say, `Isski to shaadi hone wali hai.` I`ve been hearing such talk for three years. How come I`m not married yet?" Reacting sharply to the latest engagement rumours, Geeta said: "I`ve been getting updates about my private life in the papers. Now they`re even drawing up a list of the guests. Let me set the record straight. He (Harbhajan) is my very good friend. But we aren`t getting engaged or married. My personal life is my personal life. No way am I going to use it to stay in the news." Refuting the January engagement rumours, Geeta said: "I am not getting engaged. Maybe he (Harbhajan Singh) is. You`ve to ask him. Forget enagagement or marriage, I am starting a new movie in January. Let January come and the world will know. Why do I need to say anything? As per reports, Itni baar hamari breakup aur shaadi ho chuki hai. I feel there`s no need to clarify anything." "Who is giving these reports on my engagement and marriage?" Geeta`s last release was "The Train" in 2007 and she is making a comeback with an item song with Sanjay Dutt in "Zilla Ghaziabad". She admits she has waited long to sign a new film. "Three years is a very-long time in the entertainment industry. But it was a conscious decision. I had so many offers. It was very hard to turn them down. You can`t imagine the number of films I`ve turned down in the last three years, including `Golmaal Returns`. Even the money was good. Everyone kept advising me, `Geeta, you`ve to be seen`. But I knew what I wanted. I had to wait. And I had no godfather to guide me." In three years, apart from other things, Geeta did a music video with Rahet Fateh Ali Khan. Geeta gets charged up at talking about her item song. "I love dancing. I always wanted to do an item song like Madhuri Dixit`s `Ek do teen`. In fact, I came down from London to Mumbai because I was inspired by Madhuri. I wanted at least five days to rehearse. But there was no time. I had to virtually get ready in a day. Luckily my choreographer Remo D`Souza is so calm. It`s so difficult to perform an item song. I don`t know how Madhuri made it look so effortless," she said. IANS