Director Anurag Basu, producer Rakesh Roshan and Hrithik Roshan have returned to Mumbai from Cannes while Barbara Mori, happy with her moment of red-carpeted fame has gone back to Mexico, all happy at the way the 9-minute trailer of Kites has been received at the international jamboree.

But the one voice of dissent in the glamorous event that we cannot hear, thanks to the din of clinking champagne glasses, is Kangana Ranaut"s.

After the recent Adhyayan-Shahana Goswami episode where Kangana was linked to Kites" other leading lady Barbara Mori"s brother (who apparently has no interest in women) Kangna has voluntarily gone into a shell, from which she was more than willing to emerge and attend the Cannes event for Kites. But no one invited Kangana. Strange, considering she"s the leading lady of the film.

Says a source close to Kangana, “Kangana was not told to accompany Rakesh Roshan, Hrithik and Anurag Basu although the director is very close to her and in fact was instrumental in recommending her for the role in Kites. We believe the team wanted to focus on the Hrithik-Barbara pair to give Kites a more international crossover appeal at Cannes."

But doesn"t it appear exceedingly strange that the film"s leading lady was left out at such an important event, just to spotlight the leading man with another pair?

When questioned, Rakesh Roshan washes his hands off the matter. “We ourselves were not sure till the last minute of what has happening, and who was going or not. Even my brother Rajesh Roshan, who has done the Kites music, was left out because of the last-minute flurry. I think our co-producers Big Pictures would be the best people to comment on why Kangana couldn"t go."

A representative of Big Pictures laughs off the matter saying. “I think Mr Rakesh Roshan would be able to comment on why Kangana wasn"t at Cannes."