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No Fear No Favour

SRK almost took a bullet from Underworld Don Abu Salem for me: Karan Johar.

We all know the friendship between Shahrukh Khan and Karan Johar is two decades old; they were friends when Shahrukh was just a newcomer in Bollywood industry and Karan Johar was trying hard to fill the shoes of legend director Yash Johar. But, we never knew that SRK almost took a bullet for Karan Johar, before the release of their classic romcom ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’. Yes, we are not joking!

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In his biography ‘An Unsuitable Boy’, apart from spilling the beans about his relationship with Srk and Kajol and his sexuality, KJo also unveils various phases of his life. In one of the chapters of the book, KJo has mentioned how at one point of life, in 1998, Shah Rukh Khan almost took a bullet for Karan Johar.

Recalling the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai phase, KJo revealed that film had anything but a smooth release, with threats from underworld don Abu Salem. And during this tough phase, KJo’s closest friend Shah Rukh Khan stood by him. Reassuring KJo, SRK assured that he would take a bullet for KJo.

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Here is the excerpt from the book.

“On Monday, we were writing out the cards, dispatching them through production. My maasi had come to the house to help us. I went down to drop her. My mother was alone at home, even the servants were not there, all of them had gone out. The phone rang. My mother picked it up, and it was a call from the underworld. A man’s voice said, ‘Your son’s wearing a red T-shirt, I can see him right now. And we’re going to shoot him if you release this film on Friday. For some reason, they didn’t want the film to be released that Friday; we didn’t know why. It was a call from Abu Salem, and my mother was shaking with terror. She put the phone down and ran towards the door. She pressed the lift number, and I was coming up. As I came up those nine floors, she was going through really tough moments. When I reached, she just dragged me to the room and said, ‘You have to call the cops. This call has come and they said they’re going to shoot you, they don’t want you to release your film this Friday…'”
That evening, my father, Shah Rukh, the cops, Adi, everybody was there. The cops advised us, ‘We will protect you but you have to go ahead. You can’t show your fear. You have to have the premiere on Thursday.’

By my mother said, ‘What does this mean?’
We were a simple family. We’d never had the underworld calling us to stop the release of a film. We’d never dreamt that something like this could even happen to us.

My mother said, ‘We don’t want all this nonsense.'”

KJo added that they had their film’s premiere but Karan was put in a small room with two security guards for his protection.

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Karan writes, “Shah Rukh said, ‘What nonsense!’ He went inside and dragged me out. He said, ‘I’m standing here in front of you. Let’s see who shoots you. I’m standing right here.'”I said, ‘No, no, no, my mother was…’ He told my mother, ‘Nothing’s gonna happen. I’m a Pathan. Nothing can happen to me and nothing will happen to your son. He’s like my brother. Nothing’s gonna happen.'”

And that’s what we called a Friendship, right!

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