There was a time when Shah Rukh Khan assiduously stayed away from Bigg Boss, the popular reality show hosted by Salman Khan but that was because the two were in open hostilities. 
All big budget producers usually get stars of their movies in for a weekend episode of Bigg Boss when Salman is also present because it one of the most powerful promotional avenue on television. Besides, the movie also gets Salman’s endorsement, which is handy considering his popularity. But Shah Rukh had remained unshaken in his resolve. 
When the ice finally got broken between the two, Shah Rukh finally made an appearance in Bigg Boss to promote Dilwale. 
Recently, there were rumours that Shah Rukh would come on Bigg Boss again to promote Dear Zindagi, the movie releasing this week in which he plays opposite Alia Bhatt. It is directed by Gauri Shinde who earlier made the critically acclaimed Sridevi starrer English Vinglish. 
But now it turns out that Shah Rukh will not be coming on Bigg Boss after all. Instead, Alia Bhatt will be making the appearance alone. While there is no official reason given, it is rumoured that Shah Rukh felt that Dear Zindagi was more of Alia’s movie than his and he didn’t want to detract attention from her. 
Presumably, he would not be seen much for the rest of the promotion either. It is a curious sort of reasoning. Because, if the intention is the get as much publicity as possible, then there could be no better vehicle than Shah Rukh himself. 
If Alia was the main fare, then those who come to watch the movie would anyway realise it. His stand can be explained if he was only making a lengthy special appearance in the movie but from what has been gathered so far, he is a prime character in it. 
Superstars can be cagey about their branding. So if something is billed as a Shah Rukh movie, then it needs to have scale whereas Dear Zindagi is a low key human relationship drama. Whatever be the answer to the puzzle, one thing we do know – the mega Shah Rukh movies are not doing well and he needs a return to his old acting-driven roles instead of superstar-driven roles to be back at the top. 
And if Dear Zindagi can help in that, he should be trying his best to make it a super-hit. 

Cold vibes

Speaking of Ranveer Singh, he seems to be among the friendliest persons in Bollywood getting along well with every star in town, with one exception in Sushant Singh Rajput. 
Sushant is himself also a rather amiable person, so it is somewhat strange that these two are reported to be in a cold war. 
The reason is said to be Ranveer’s impending release Befikre, which is being produced by Yash Raj Films, the biggest production company in town. Sushant has been a Yash Raj favourite. They produced some of his early movies like Shuddh Desi Romance and Detective Byomkesh Bakshy! 
He is believed to have thought that he would be cast in Befikre. But at some point, the production house decided to get Ranveer, who is a much bigger star than Sushant at the moment. A report said that even the Sanjay Leela Bhansali super-hit Goliyon ki Raasleela Ram-Leela, which propelled Ranveer’s career, was also originally slated to star Sushant. 
Not that Sushant is doing too badly. His role as Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni in the biopic by the same name has been one of the biggest grossers of the year.


Dangerous fun 

The thing that connects Ranveer Singh and Ranbir Kapoor is Deepika Padukone. The latter is a former boyfriend and the former the current one. 
Deepika and Ranbir continue to maintain an excellent friendship despite their break up and have acted in movies together with great success. While their equation is public knowledge, what was not very clear was how Ranveer and Ranbir saw each other. They are not really friends. 
The man who brought the two men together was perhaps the only one who had the ability to do so – Karan Johar for his talk show Koffee With Karan. After shooting an episode with them both, he put up a selfie of all three together on his Twitter account a line. ‘This is what happened today!!!’ 
The episode is yet to be aired but film journalists got the lowdown on what actually transpired at the show. An online gossip website reported that the two shared great bonhomie, the person who could actually be upset might be another one of Ranbir’s ex-girlfriends, Katrina Kaif. 
Ranveer reportedly mimicked Katrina’s acting skills and brought it down to one expression, which was claimed to be all she had. This was in good fun but Ranbir laughing gamely along might not go down too well with Katrina.


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