Karan Johar has often spoken about the first time he met Shah Rukh Khan. It was at the office of veteran filmmaker Aanand Mahendroo back in the late 1980s. While Karan was about to make his acting debut with Mahendroo’s 1989 children’s sci-fi television show Indradhanush, Shah Rukh showed up to reject a role in the same series. Given how callously he turned down the role, Karan initially thought him to be quite arrogant, before working with him years later as an assistant director, co-actor, and his costume stylist on Aditya Chopra’s 1995 seminal blockbuster romantic comedy Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.

However, Mahendroo had a slightly different version of what happened. “How Karan says it is with a little masala: ‘ Mujhe serial-verial nahi karna hai (I don’t want to do any serials)!’ That’s not how Shah Rukh is,” the filmmaker said on Screen Spotlight earlier this year.…