Sanjay Dutt and Shah Rukh Khan at the party in Mumbai; Shirish Kunder (bottom) at the same event. (Fotocorp)

Jan. 30: A slap on vendor Mohamed Bouazizi led to tragedy and resounded across the world to launch an epoch-making event — the Tunisian Jasmine Revolution that heralded the Arab Spring a year ago.

In India, a whack — apparently delivered by Shah Rukh Khan and certainly resounding on air waves and Twitter — has launched Shirish Kunder into the stratosphere of fame.

Shirish, who? Shirish Kunder, usually known as the husband of Farah Khan when he is not editing, directing or producing films. From now on, he will be known as the alleged recipient of the “Rs 150-crore slap”.

Both Farah, one-time friend of Shah Rukh, and her husband made sure that everyone knew about the brawl that unfolded at a party to celebrate the success of the remade Agneepath at 3.30am on Monday.

The party was thrown by a certain Baba Dewan for friend Sanjay Dutt — to celebrate his performance as Kancha Cheena in Agneepath — at a nighclub called Aurus in suburban Mumbai.

According to sources, Shah Rukh came in quite late and overheard Shirish badmouthing SRK’s home production Ra.One. Shirish had once also tweeted that “I just heard a 150 crore firework fizzle”, referring to the budget and performance of Shah Rukh’s sci-fi movie.

Evidently, either Farah had not briefed her husband on the occupational hazards associated with such wisecracks at the expense of King Khan or he had not researched enough on the unsettling effect “bashes” have on SRK who had allegedly got into a brawl with Salman Khan at Katrina Kaif's birthday bash in 2008.

Well, history apparently repeated itself, true to the cliché. SRK confronted Shirish and slapped him in full view of the rest of the party crowd.

Before matters really got out of clenched fists, Sanjay intervened and escorted Shah Rukh out of the party. Unconfirmed reports claimed Sanjay also slapped Shirish for sending text messages to his wife Manyata.

Shah Rukh told NDTV that there was a “disagreement” but no assault.

But Farah sent out text messages and spoke to some media outlets, saying Shah Rukh arrived at the party with three bodyguards and landed blows on her husband.

The choreographer-director told Headlines Today: “Shirish, my husband, was beaten up by Shah Rukh and his three bodyguards in Sanjay Dutt’s party. Shah Rukh asked Shirish why he had tweeted against him.… There was no provocation from our side. He had screamed at Shirish telling him that he would destroy me as well.”

She also texted a statement to reporters: “Shah Rukh has always told me that physical abuse is the worst way 2 sort out a problem, that its means the person who’s hitting has either a personal or professional crisis going on, it saddens me 2 see him doing the same.”

In keeping with the times, Twitter began buzzing with the SRK-delivered slap that soon collected the much-misused suffix “gate” and became “slapgate”.

The flood of tweets — six out of 10 topics trending in India dealt with the slap — appears to have had the effect of a balm on Shirish. “Thanks for all your concern & wishes. We are very grateful. Contrary to rumours, we have no intention of filing a FIR or police complaint.”

In the evening Shah Rukh also tweeted and did not miss the irony: “Another long nite. Shooting for a public service msg film about education peace & harmony. Feels ironic when I read & see wot is being said.”

Other celebrities who were at the bash refrained from commenting. Only celebrity photographer Dabboo Ratnani tweeted: “I was present at Sanj’s (Sanjay Dutt) party and without any bias I fully support Shah Rukh.”

Now some serious history. Shah Rukh and Shirish’s animosity goes back a long way. Farah’s husband is said to be the reason she and SRK parted ways after their hugely successful Om Shanti Om. Shirish wanted wife Farah to move away from the SRK camp and make films with the stars of his directorial debut, Jaan-e-Mann — Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan. Tees Maar Khan (co-produced by Shirish and directed by Farah) followed.

Although Shah Rukh and Farah have thereafter been seen together at social dos and on reality show sets, they were no longer the friends they used to be.

Then Ra.One and the raw ones happened. Another sample tweet from the Shirish archives: “Bodyguard (the Salman-starrer and opening day record holder till Agneepath roared past) is trending. Everything else is pending”.

Pundits are predicting that the scuffle is almost likely to have a larger impact on the relationship between Shah Rukh and Salman who is a friend of Shirish and Farah.

Yes, backbreaking research precedes such prognosis. How else did someone today discover an old tweet from @ShirishKunder’s account which goes: “A slap a day keeps the corrupt away.” Ouch!