The strange part of the January 30 episode at Sanjay Dutt’s party was that before going home I’d just had a long conversation with Shirish Kunder about his tweets (they’re quite funny and smart) and about Indians finally developing a sense of humour, when the unfortunate physical assault on him by Shah Rukh Khan happened at 4am.

Actually, it would be factually wrong to call it Sanjay Dutt’s party because Maanyata made it clear that it was she who had drawn up the guest list, “and he had no clue who was coming.” But Sanju was pleased with whatever “mom” (as he calls Maanyata) had arranged for him as he spiritedly partied with every guest who walked in. The large and lavish guest list has already been covered extensively by the media with the Shah Rukh-Shirish Kunder fight taking the spotlight away from the celebration. The blunt truth is, unlike wife Farah Khan who is more amiable, Shirish Kunder does have a way of rubbing people up the wrong way. Also, he was already at the party when I walked in at 11.30pm and if he was still around (solo, because Farah was not with him) at 4am, one can imagine how unpleasantly high he must’ve been.

On the other hand, even before he entered the party, SRK had been bristling over Shirish’s tweets against Ra.One, a reaction which was completely unfair because a film is in the public domain and everybody has a right to call it “A Rs 150 C cracker that fizzled” or whatever they want. But sighting a high Shirish at Sanjay Dutt’s party couldn’t have been an inviting spectacle for Shah Rukh. People present there at 4am were all undivided over both facts: that Shirish was being obnoxiously generous with his snide remarks and that a speedily irritated SRK, instead of continuing to ignore him and going home, had no business to get physical with Farah’s husband.

A couple of months ago, while answering a question about his two-year-old fight with Salman, Shah Rukh had rightly observed that at this 45-plus age, when he had two children who were growing up, it felt uncomfortable to be associated with fighting and not talking to someone. I wonder why he didn’t remember that when he gave in to provocation and gave vent to his anger.

In the ensuing standoff, by going over to Mannat and making amends gracefully, it is Farah and brother Sajid Khan who have come off as the more mature people. My belief is, when someone puts his money where his mouth is and unstintingly backs your debut, as Shah Rukh did for Farah when he produced Main Hoon Na for her, you have to be grateful to him for life. Gratitude doesn’t mean you have to unquestioningly keep working for your first benefactor but yes, even if you go your way, you shouldn’t ever stop being grateful to him for what he once did for you. By taking that first important step to call truce to an ugly spat, Farah exhibited that much-needed maturity. One only wishes some of it had rubbed off on her husband.

But here’s something that went unreported.

Hrithik Roshan also had a celebration for the grand success of Agneepath with his being a private, no-media do. Couldn’t care less about that but a little bird whispered that for reasons best known to Hrithik, he invited only Sanjay and Maanyata Dutt, leaving out Rishi Kapoor from his guest list. It’s doubly curious because Duggu has grown up in front of “Rishi Uncle” who is extremely close to his dad, Rakesh Roshan.

Rishi Kapoor is practically family for the Roshans. Surely Hrithik couldn’t be petty about the fact that out of all three performers — Hrithik, Sanjay and Rishi — who were singled out for praise, it was Rishi who was unanimously and unstintingly applauded for his mean butcher act in Agneepath? Whatever be Hrithik’s reasons for dropping Rishi-Neetu from his guest list, it hurt the senior actor a lot. Few know this but on Saturday, the night before Sanjay-Maanyata had their party and on the night that Hrithik had his, there had been an impromptu celebration at Rishi’s bungalow. A common friend from Jaipur had dropped in at the Kapoor bungalow and he’d casually called Sanju-Maanya over to join them, turning the evening into an unplanned round of “cheers”.

So on Saturday night, after partying with Rishi and Neetu, the Dutts drove down to Hrithik’s do, leaving behind a befuddled Kapoor couple who wondered why they’d been left out of the Roshan party. Fortunately, a Kapoor-Roshan standoff didn’t hit the headlines next day simply because nobody but nobody, except yours truly, got even a whiff of it!

Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor,The Film Street Journal