After Gere, did Govinda head for Nepal?

After Hollywood icon Richard Gere's low-key trip to Kathmandu this month to resume old ties and meet members of the Tibetan community, did Bollywood heartthrob Govinda pay an even more low-key visit to the Himalayan nation?

That's what Nepal's leading daily claims though the actor's associates in Nepal deny the report.

Govinda, one of Bollywood's top heroes and a Congress MP, is also known as Nepal's son-in-law after his marriage in the 1980s to Kathmandu girl Sunita.

Kantipur, Nepal's largest selling daily, said the busy hero had come on a flying visit to Nepal Saturday with his wife, son and daughter.

The daily quoted Sunita and said the star visitor had come for a quick holiday as well as to offer prayers at some of Kathmandu's famed shrines.

Before returning to Mumbai Tuesday, he is said to have visited the hallowed Pashupatinath temple, the Baglamukhi altar and the Dakshinkali shrine, where King Gyanendra offered five animal sacrifices this week.

Nepal's home ministry, under severe flak for the fragile security situation in the country, provided the actor with two bodyguards, the daily said.

The actor had come to Nepal in 2003 as well, after the Maoist guerrillas had declared a ceasefire.

Along with former Miss World Priyanka Chopra, Chi Chi, as Govinda is sometimes known, had shot two song and dance sequences in Kathmandu and its neighbouring district Bhaktapur for Bollywood producer K.C. Bokadia's "Ek Hasina Ek Diwana".

However, Nepali event manager Madhav Timilsinha, who had helped Bokadia facilitate the shooting, said the report was baseless.

"Govinda did not come to Nepal."

Earlier this month, there was a rumour that Bollywood power couple Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan were scheduled to arrive in Nepal prior to their wedding to seek Pashupatinath's blessings.

The rumour was triggered by a web site, resulting in journalists keeping vigil at the temple as well as Kathmandu's international airport for a glimpse of the former beauty queen and the son of Amitabh Bachchan, who enjoys a huge fan following in Nepal.