This time last year, there was an uncharacteristic story going around that Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra were slyly seeing each other, making wife Gauri and her band of followers like Bhavna Panday, Maheep Kapoor, Sussanne Roshan and Meher Rampal, gang up against the Don heroine.

Ah, Don was the key word because that was the film on release when the stories of SRK’s alleged extra-marital fling whirled around Mumbai. It was uncharacteristic because Shah Rukh was never known as a hero who would look for cheap mileage by publicising a romance with his co-star. Still, the signs said something else, especially because this was one time he did nothing to quell the rumours. Was it, as some whispers charged, a boost to an ageing star’s flagging desirability quotient?

The story was also suspicious because, with Priyanka starring in their home production Krrish 3, could Sussanne and Hrithik really afford to cold shoulder their leading lady?

There was even an implausible suggestion that Gauri had stopped going out with Shah Rukh because they were going their different ways. It was a story that was promptly rubbished here in this column based simply on knowing how deeply Shah Rukh values his family life.

The only element in the story that was disturbing was that it seemed to amuse SRK more than irk him. That was not like him because he always intensely despised these link-ups with co-stars. So one could only conclude that such stories were now flattering to an ageing star.

But, whatever the truth, has anybody noticed that SRK and Gauri are still very much a couple that’s still together? Besides, today the TV channels are asking all and sundry about Shah Rukh’s “hot chemistry” with Katrina Kaif. Whatever happened to Ms Chopra?

One of those channels that has ear-splitting music clanging after every five seconds to drive home a point or to make a meek news item appear like an earth-shattering scoop came over to talk to me about just this: SRK and Katrina Kaif. “They have done some hot scenes in Jab Tak Hai Jaan,” an over-excited anchor informed me. One had to calmly inform her that Shah Rukh Khan never does “hot scenes”, certainly not the kind Saif and Kareena did in Qurbaan. SRK does intensely romantic scenes, never hot, sizzling ones.

Shah Rukh has that point in common with his two current rivals, Salman and Ajay Devgn. All three actors never do scorching scenes that make Indian families squirm and cover their children’s eyes. While Katrina was dating Salman as his steady girl, she too never did even a kissing scene. That principle went out of the window when she broke up with Salman, flew to Spain and did her first real screen smooch with Hrithik Roshan in Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara.

But whether it is Shah Rukh or Salman, neither of them will do a kissing scene with Katrina because they just don’t do it with anybody before the camera. So where is the question of “hot scenes”? Good chemistry, yes, because Katrina is getting more and more comfortable with her craft and Shah Rukh has an intensity in his voice and body language, particularly in his eyes, when he’s romancing any girl on screen. From Kajol to Katrina via Anushka Sharma, he has made love to them all with his eyes, not his lips, even in the bedroom.

But it is hilarious to watch the PR rigmarole at play whenever there is a crucial release around the corner. Today the chatter is centred on the chemistry between Shah Rukh and Katrina and on producers clamouring to cash in on it. But we are talking about two of the biggest stars of filmdom today and who wouldn’t want to pair them together? They are hot sellers by themselves and don’t need “hot scenes” to sell them.

What is hot is that one film wonder Nargis Fakhri has found herself in the same bracket as established heroine Rani Mukerji. While Rani is now accepted as “family” in Yash Chopra’s house, at a private puja for the late filmmaker where only the closest family members were present, Nargis Fakhri was also completely at home. It’s an open secret that Aditya Chopra’s younger brother Uday (who broke up with Tanisha, Kajol’s sister) has been dating Nargis. But it is hush hush that Uday is serious enough to bring her in as a part of the Yash Raj family.

Bharathi S. Pradhan is editor, The Film Street Journal