SRK, Priyanka's “special” friendship
He calls her his 3 AM friend, while she blushes at the mention of his name. Few actors share the camaraderie Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra do, but it's not a bond that hasn't burnt some bridges along the way.
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May 2000: 12 years ago, when Shah Rukh Khan crowned Priyanka Chopra Miss India, neither knew their friendship would one day be the talk of Bollywood. He was her lucky charm, she had said then.
In this picture, Miss India 2000 winners: Priyanka Chopra, Lara Dutta and Dia Mirza. -
Mid-2004: Apparently the first time Priyanka sought out SRK was when she was plagued with trouble from her then-secretary Prakash Jaju, who sued her for non-payment of dues. Shah Rukh ensured things got better and encouraged her to concentrate on her career. She even accompanied him on the Temptations tour back then.
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August 2006: After six years,Priyanka landed a role beside her favourite Bollywood star in Farhan Akhtar's Don. Thanks to his allure and her acting skill, both would often fall short of words of praise for each other. Priyanka said, "I still cannot believe I'm working with King Khan!" To which he responded, "She's beautiful and the best actress we have today."
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November 2008: This was the year Priyanka apparently found love with Shahid Kapoor while shooting for Kaminey. The relationship seemed fickle, yet feisty. Not to mention, it was one that good friend SRK approved of. The couple was seen spending time at Khan's Bandra residence many times since then.
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January 2009: By now Priyanka's love life was even more unpredictable than the Mumbai weather. Stories about trouble in the PC-Sasha paradise started doing the rounds every few months. The only thing constant was her affection for SRK. (By this time she had fallen out with Salman. She and Aamir on the other hand have never worked together).
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December 2010: In the season's hottest episode of Karan Johar's Koffee with Karan, PC gushed like a teenager when KJo mentioned how close she was to SRK. All poor Sasha could do was provide background score. However we hear that Gauri wasn't too happy with it.
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February 2011: Shahid was well out of her life, and she needed a friend more than ever. PC promoted both her films 7 Khoon Maaf and Don 2 with SRK who was hosting the show Zor Ka Jhatka. He went down on his knees for her and the cameras. "If he was one of the seven husbands in the film, I'd never kill him," she said.
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September 2011: By now their alleged closeness was too serious to be brushed off as a promotional gimmick for Don 2. Every time the media mentioned their 'relationship', she'd get defensive, while he took it lightly. This is when wife Gauri decided to throw an Eid bash. Priyanka was invited, but apparently ignored. Buzz was that Gauri's friend Mehr Rampal walked up to SRK and confronted him about why Priyanka was part of the party. SRK came to PC's defence saying she is a friend like others.
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November 2011: Buzz was that by now Gauri and SRK's close friends had started smelling the coffee. Most of them empathised with Mrs Khan. A close friend was quoted in a magazine saying, "Priyanka is at every party that Shah Rukh throws. She's always hovering around him. Of course, Gauri is upset."
