Partners In Crime: It takes pan masala to bring 2 warring superstars together

It is no secret in the Hindi film industry that superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn cannot see eye to eye. And that’s putting it mildly. The truth is much harsher. These two gentlemen-superstars would probably claw each other’s eyes off if put together in a lift without their wives to separate them.

The outspoken Kajol has in fact publicly said that her husband Ajay Devgn and her most favourite co-star Shah Rukh Khan are not friends, although she is very close to the latter. In fact, both Shah Rukh and Karan Johar are ‘off’ territory for Devgn.

What is the reason for this hostility, one of the most enduring cold wars of Bollywood? If the truth be told, it is just a case of hate at first sight between the two. In spite of the Kajol factor, Devgn couldn’t warm up to SRK. It happens. Sometimes two people can’t see eye to eye because they have nothing in common. Ajay doesn’t like any of Shah Rukh’a friends, except Kajol, of course.

Not that they have not tried to come together. A social get-together that nobody knows about happened some years ago when Shah Rukh and his wife Gauri met with Ajay Devgn and Kajol over dinner. The evening was, in one word, disastrous. Thereafter no attempt was made for the Devgn and Khan to become friends.

They also made sure they were never offered any film together. But a paan-masala ad finally brought them together, albeit reluctantly. The story goes that the paan-masala makers wanted two A-listers who had never been seen together. The two names that came up immediately were Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn. When the offer went to the two superstars, they both refused to work together. Then some extra zeroes were added on the cheques and the two superstars reluctantly agreed to set aside their mutual differences for a few days to shoot the ads.

But there was a pre-condition to the sell-out. Both Devgn and Khan had to be paid the same amount, not a penny more not a penny less.

Apparently, the two did not speak a word to each other during the shooting of the ad. The mutual hostility was palpable. When Shah Rukh requested the shooting of the ad to be cancelled during his son’s incarceration last year, Devgn refused to oblige.

“We all have personal problems. We don’t bring them to work,” he’s said to have commented wrily.

I wish this untried rare combination had saved the opportunity to come together for a better cause: like jointly endorsing an anti-polio vaccination or advising taxpayers to pay their taxes on time.

But coming together to sell cancer? Really, not worth it.

Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.

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