Bollywood has had witnessed some of the ugliest tussles over all these years but the fracas that incurred between Shah Rukh Khan and his good friend Farah Khan's husband Shirish Kunder still remains one of the biggest brawls that had left the industry totally divided.
The year was 2012 and Sanjay Dutt had thrown a lavish party at a popular nightclub named Aurus to celebrate the success of Agneepath. The party was attended by some of the A-listers like Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra, Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Karisma Kapoor, Vivek Oberoi, Arshad Warsi and Ameesha Patel.
But the celebration soon turned into a nightmare for everyone when things turned undesirably ugly between Shah Rukh Khan and Shirish Kunder.
It all started when Shirish had taken to Twitter to mock Shah Rukh Khan's big budget film Ra One and had written, "I just heard a Rs150 crore firework fizzle." And when SRK and Shirish came under same roof, it brought an unwanted storm whose scars are still etched in people's minds.
According to reports, Shah Rukh Khan had arrived at Sanjay Dutt's success party at around 3.15 am straight after attending the Filmfare awards along with his three bodyguards. He looked in a pretty good mood and was even seen hitting the dance floor with Dutt and his wife Manayata until Shirish reportedly showed up and kept stalking him. But SRK kept ignoring him and refused to acknowledge him at the party as if he didn't exist.
It was reported that Shirish deliberately bumped into SRK several times and even followed him to the men's room. SRK had reportedly warned Shirish helding him by his neck to try not to mess with him but to no effect.
Shirish reportedly kept stalking him until SRK lost his cool when he was escorted by Dutt outside the venue after he wished to leave the party. Eyewitnessed had said that SRK turned around, grabbed an inebriated Shirish by his neck, pinned him onto a sofa and allegedly slapped him.
As the situation was turning quite ugly, Sanjay Dutt, who was apparently aware of their awry relationship, intervened and tried to separate them from each other. Some eyewitnesses had said that Dutt allegedly pushed an enraged Shirish and slapped him as well when he reportedly moved towards Manayata in an inebriated state.
After the scuffle, Shirish was quoted as saying by The Times Of India in a report, "I was so disgusted that I left the party" and denied Dutt slapping him. But the onlookers had insisted that Dutt did slap him contrary to Shirish's claims.
He had further added, "I did not provoke Shah Rukh Khan. One never expects that someone will come and attack you like this. There were three bodyguards around him so it was a clear signal for me to be quiet."
The ugly incident had left the industry divided and most of them spoke in favour of Shah Rukh Khan.
While Farah Khan had told the media that Shirish didn't provoke SRK in the party. "Shah Rukh has always told me that physical abuse is the worst way to sort out a problem. It means the attacker has either a personal or professional crisis going on. It saddens me to see him doing the same," Farah had said in an MMS sent to the media.
On the other hand, ace photographer Dabboo Ratnani, Ameesh Patel and others backed SRK and offered their full support.
While Ameesha had tweeted, "Shirish and Farah should be grateful to SRK, he has done so much for Farah", Ratnani had tweeted, "I was present at Sanju's party and without any bias I fully support Shah Rukh."
And even after the incident, Shirish chose not to file an FIR or a police complaint against Shah Rukh Khan. "Thanks for all your concern and wishes. We are very grateful. Contrary to rumours, we have no intention of filing an FIR or police complaint," Shirish had tweeted to clarify his stance against SRK.
Later, Shah Rukh Khan too had clarified to the media saying that "though there had been a disagreement between him and Shirish, there had been no assault."
Well, sometimes somethings should be left alone for people to understand on their own.
