Shahrukh Khan and Akshay Kumar at Filmfare Awards

I happened to lay my hand on the issue of Mid-day dated 28 Feb’ 2007, where Akshay Kumar was reported to have taken a dig at SRK’s expense and that a cold war was evident. I believed the story like many and being a person of average intelligence, became party to the rumors floating around. We understood how wrong we were when the 53rd Annual Filmfare awards 2008 was actually telecast on TV.

Here is a pure case of journalism going over the top and exaggerating things. This may be a small matter; an inconsequential one but it just goes to show that print media can write just about anything(most of it untrue) to create sensationalism and spread wrong signals.

On February 23rd’08 Mid-day, the famous newspaper in Mumbai reported that the digs made by Saif and Shahrukh went so far that Akshay Kumar was clearly irritated. According to the report by Mid-day, Akshay was so bugged by the comments that he actually took hold of the mike and said “Shah Rukh, your wife had called me yesterday.” Then the newspaper further says that there was a stunned silence in the auditorium. And before the audience thought that Akshay Kumar was getting nastier, he said, ““She told me to come to your house and perform for Aryan’s next birthday bash as he prefers my dancing to yours.” The news report even states that Akki’s wit at first stumped SRK and then he took it sportingly later.

Every line stated above is a lie. It is embarrassing and shameful to note that newspapers of such repute exaggerate and unnecessarily blow up issues that never happen, into full blown controversies. You can see it right in front of you.

If you look at the video, the digs look well rehearsed and not something out of blue! Akshay Kumar does not look one bit irritated and SRK does not look at all stumped. In fact, the gags look clearly rehearsed in advance; there is no stunned silence but peals of laughter even after Akshay Kumar says ““Shah Rukh, your wife had called me yesterday.” There is no question of Shahrukh being sporty, in fact he plays along the humor and even teases his wife “astheen ki saamp” If he was really flummoxed or stumped, he would not have come with such a repartee. The newspaper states the cracks on Akshay Kumar stopped after he gave a fitting repartee. Nothing of the sort looks so in the video, Shahrukh Khan and Saif Ali Khan continue pulling his leg, calling him a "bhaand".

To conclude,there is no hint of cold war or bad blood at all between the two but a lot of camaraderie and humor. Mid-day stated that the harmless joke took a deadly turn. It just took a “lively” turn for a change!

Just goes to show to what length snoopy journalism can go to create rifts and spread rumors. I mean, if a newspaper of this repute can go to these lengths, then what about film magazines and gossip magazines? You can read the Mid-day report here.