Exactly...we have other jobs, I suppose
Still, it isn't fair to make SRK the scapegoat for what happened to Aish.
It isn't his fault, when his friend and Aish fall in love...it isn't his fault, when - after having worked with SRK in Josh together - Aish prefered to do successful movies with SRK instead of with Salman (Mohabbatein, Devdas).
Is it SRK's fault when Aish developped a liking for SRK that irked Salman? Is it SRK's fault, when the obvious cameraderie between both made Salman jealous and the media gossipy?
Aish wasn't SRK's first choice for Chalte Chalte...it had been Rani. Yet Rani didn't want as she was just working in a movie with a similar subject (Saathiya, marital problems).
As SRK and Aish had become a 'hot pairing' after Devdas (and the hot item song for Shakti) and SRK really needed a (financial) success in India after PBDHH and Asoka, he opted for Aish although - at this time - there already had been ugly incidents with Salman storming on sets to look after Aish. SRK requested Aish that he didn't want such incident on his sets.
Then, one un-fine day, just that happened. An out-of-control Salman (understandable, imo, if one knows him) drove with his car onto the set damaging some things, interrupting the shooting, rather menacing in his behaviour. He wanted that Aish - "at once" - came with him. SRK told Aish if she would go with Salman now, there would be no peaceful shooting after that anymore and he would not be able to continue to work with her on this film (it was an absolutely desperate situation).
Aish opted for climbing into Salman's car to make him leave and pacify him and return later...but there had been no later as Aish had quasi to flee to her parents' house and she broke the contact with a desperate Salman (who had come to her parent's house to apologize).
SRK was desperate, too...Salman had been his friend but he also knew his nature (and we don't know what Aish all had said to Salman and SRK during the two years she had worked with SRK - the public behaviour gave a lot of gossip-favouring signals). So he wanted to go to Salman to talk with him about the situation. It was Gauri who suggested that he should better take a distance to Aish (and also to Salman) for a while and should contact Rani again... (and I guess, rightly so...a smart woman, really).
So, Aish wasn't an option for VeerZaara, anyways (with everything that publicly happened after that incident).
2 years later, at Fahrah's sangeet with Shirish, Salman and SRK were present, each in another corner. Then, while SRK was dancing, Salman went to him and hugged him from behind...SRK's immediate reaction was a hug back and - how Farah told - they hugged for a long time, with tears in the eyes.
4 years later, Aish would be again a reason for a much longer silence between the friends.
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