When I saw the video of Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan hugging each other at the Iftaar party of Baba Siddique, a few questions kept haunting me.

Didn’t Salman know that Shah Rukh was coming to the party? Then why did he come to the party in the first place?

I told myself, “No he didn’t know.”

Then I asked myself, “Salman’s father Salim Khan came to the Iftaar party much before Salman and so did one of Salman’s brothers. So, was it possible for Salman not to know that Shah Rukh Khan was present at the party?”

I told myself, “Stop being a cynic all the time. No, he didn’t know. That is why he did what he never did in the last five years — arrive at a party where Shah Rukh Khan was also a prominent guest.”

But then how did he start walking towards Shah Rukh Khan knowing fully well that he was sitting there? How did he tap SRK on the shoulders while the latter immediately turned around and hugged him? How come none of them look surprised? How did all of them happily pose for the shutterbugs soon after?

I didn’t have an answer because Salman Khan wouldn’t do this normally. What he did at the Iftaar party was anything but Salmanesque.

If Salman Khan spots somebody who he doesn’t like, even from a distance, he won’t interact with him. Salman would just walk past him and pretend to see through him. He has done it numerous times in the past. If anybody doesn’t believe me, they can go and ask Vivek Oberoi.

The question still remained: How did the two superstars — who jealously avoided each other and passionately disliked each other — patch up so easily?

I saw the video again and again, minutely, frame by frame. Salman walked towards Shah Rukh, tapped him on his shoulder, Shah Rukh turned around, immediately got up and hugged Salman Khan. Salman Khan seemed too willing to get hugged.

Here is the video for all of you again -> 

Was it a hug on the spur of the moment, the way it appeared on the TV cameras? Or was there’s a story behind this one too?

As usual, I decided to dig deeper.

It didn’t take long before a friend in the industry (the post was written yesterday evening, actually there are two now) who was present in the Iftaar party, spilled all the beans — some of them at the party like him, knew much in advance that Salman and Shah Rukh will be brought face-to-face.

The hatchet had been buried one month ago — it was just an official announcement of sorts that was made at the Iftaar party. The only difference was that it was just a little dramatic like our Bollywood movies.

So the hashtag #SalmanhuggedRK doesn’t go with the hashtag #spurofthemoment. If my source (sources) is to be believed then the hasthag #spurofthemoment should be replaced with something like #scripted.

So, here’s what I got from my source.

Salman and Shah Rukh wanted to make an official announcement of their patch-up

Both Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan knew that they were on the guest list of Baba Siddique. They came to the party knowing fully well that they would meet. They also arrived on time so that the meeting could happen.

When Baba Siddique requested Salman to meet a few prominent guests, both of them were aware that one of the guests would be Shah Rukh Khan.

Some of the guests who knew what was going to happen had already taken their seats at the chief minister’s table while a few others were standing nearby to witness ‘history’.

It is also a fact that Salman’s father Salim Khan was given the best seat on the table, bang opposite Shah Rukh Khan. Salim Khan took his seat opposite Shah Rukh Khan at least 45 minutes before Salman walked in.

One of Salman’s brothers was also standing behind Salim Khan when the hug was happening. That is why he is not in the frame when the photographers went berserk. So, this means that when Salman Khan started walking towards Shah Rukh, he went around the table and stood behind his dad (sitting opposite Shah Rukh Khan) to get a clear view of what was going to happen.

What I basically mean to say is that everybody had taken their position in anticipation of what was going to happen at the Iftaar party.

It was Shah Rukh Khan who broke the ice with Salman

My source says that Shah Rukh took the initiative and made a phone call to Salman Khan. They spoke briefly for 15 minutes and that conversation did all the trick.

“I am told that it was Shah Rukh who broke the ice with Salman and it was a phone call. They spoke on the phone before they met at the party. Do you see any hint of surprise in anybody’s eyes? Shah Rukh’s reaction is like ‘here you are!’. He was sitting patiently at the chief minister’s table because he knew that Salman is going to arrive there,” said the source.

Normally, such VIP zones are out-of-bounds for the media due to security reasons but this time around, cameras and video cameras were already put up at the ‘right’ angles to capture this piece of ‘history’. Nobody seemed to have missed a shot.

As a result, the perfect Karan-Arjun type frame was shot without a hassle, only this time Baba Siddique replaced Rakhee Gulzar.

Here’s another coincidence. Shah Rukh Khan mentioned in a tweet just a day earlier that he is going to get a hug. I know what you are going to say. That he tweeted that in an entirely different context. But I am still embedding the tweet below.

Day at the Quotes continues…”İf nothing saves us from death, may love at least save us from life”! Neruda. Going to get myself a hug…

— SHAH RUKH KHAN (@iamsrk) July 20, 2013

The hug finally happened and it made front page news. It entertained us and it definitely made for a good picture but the reality might be different.  I have enough reasons to believe that the script was read out to both of them long back. Only that the perfect shot was canned at Baba Siddique’s party which was held just days after Katrina’s birthday on 18th July, the day they actually fought in 2008.

Both Salman and Shah Rukh need all the prayers and good wishes of their loyal fan following for two entirely different reasons. Perhaps both agree that it’s time that Salman Khan fans start supporting Shah Rukh Khan too. And vice versa.

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Update on 24 July, 2013: The youtube channel of the site, businessofcinema.com, seems to have unearthed more proof. Here’s a video they have posted. Do you still need more proof?

Link to the Bengali version of this blog -> http://bit.ly/13Wptss
Short-link of this post -> http://wp.me/p3x1zT-mm