Subsequently, though the Bollywood Badshah wasn’t invited to the Ash-Abhishek wedding, King Khan and wife Gauri posed with the Bachchans for the shutterbugs at the Drona premiere last year. And more recently, at Karan Johar’s birthday party on May 25, the two couples — SRK and Gauri, Ash and Abhi — spent quality time together.

Sources say that Shah Rukh Khan has given a go ahead to cinematographer-turned- director Rajeev Menon’s project pairing himself and Aishwarya Rai after a narration session in London. Rajeev had especially flown to British capital to seek Badshah’s nod for the project and if he was okay with stunning beauty Aishwarya Rai playing the female lead opposite him. 

In fact, Rajeev wants to recreate the magic of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s ‘Devdas’ in his upcoming project with Shah Rukh and Aishwarya, but was apprehensive about Shah Rukh’s consent for the project, as Shah Rukh Khan never worked with the gorgeous beauty after ‘Devdas’. It is not that efforts were not made to reunite the sparkling pair of Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya on the silver screen, but all failed.

The most prominent theory doing rounds in the industry is that this is an extension of Shah Rukh Khan-Salman Khan’s infamous spat at Katrina’s birthday. Perhaps Shah Rukh Khan is following the adage ‘enemy’s enemy is friend’, and in this case Salman Khan is enemy of both Shah Rukh and Aishwarya Rai.

Also through this olive branch to Bachchans, Shah Rukh Khan is trying to isolate Salman Khan in the industry. Everybody knows that Bachchan family commands respect and is also considered one of the most powerful families of bollywood. This unity of Shah Rukh Khan and Bachchans will send a clear signal of ‘do not mess with me’ to macho Salman Khan from SRK.

Another theory regarding Shah Rukh Khan-Aishwarya Rai pairing seems to be that at this point of his career, SRK is looking to do films that explore his dramatic intensity as in Devdas. SRK has sensibly decided to move on to mature roles. Two of his forthcoming films – Karan Johar's My Name Is Khan and Anubhav Sinha's Ra1 SRK plays father to teenage kids. 

Most actors shy away from playing fathers on screen. But Shah Rukh reportedly had no issues with the age of his on screen children. Neither did he discuss the need behind showing him as a father.

Karan Johar confirms, "It was never an issue with Shah Rukh. Why should it be? His son Aryan is 11-years-old. Actors should not worry about these things and not allow it to interfere in their decisions."

My Name Is Khan has Shah Rukh Khan play a suspected terrorist who falls in love with a Hindu single mother.

Now Shah Rukh has no problems working with Ash and she with him. Rajiv Menon’s film is being seen as a natural progression towards mending the bridges between two of the most powerful families of Bollywood. 

However, skeptics are not so convinced and point out that if indeed there was a thaw in relationship between SRK and Bachchans, then why Shah Rukh Khan gave IIFA, which was held in Macau this year, a miss. At least he could have attended inaugural ceremony to show his solidarity with Bachchans.