MUMBAI: Bollywood filmmaker Karan Johar’s next, a period film, will see him reunite with Shah Rukh Khan the star of all of Johar’s directorial ventures so far barring the director’s last work ‘Student Of The Year’ (SOTY) which featured newcomers for the first time in a Karan Johar film.

There were rumours of a rift between Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar, fuelled by the fact that Shah Rukh was not any part of ‘Student Of The Year’, though initially he had been offered a guest appearance.

With the next Karan Johar film all speculation regarding Karan Johar’s alliance with Shah Rukh Khan, at least professionally, can be laid to rest.

Apparently Karan’s father the late Yash Johar was very sure it would only be Shah Rukh Khan for the lead in the Partition film.

As for the other male lead, Karan Johar, our source tells us, was keen on Ranbir Kapoor. However the Ranbir role has now gone to the Dharma protégé Siddharth Malhotra.

If you thought  Karan has given up on his debutant stars from SOTY think again. The period film will star the SOTY lead Siddharth Malhotra alongside Shah Rukh Khan.

Quite a leap of fate for a one-film old newcomer. The film was to originally star Ranbir Kapoor with Shah Rukh. But Ranbir declined the offer.

Says a source close to Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions, “Ranbir turned down the role and even told a friend, ‘What would I be doing in a film that already has SRK in it?’ That’s how, one hears, a relative newcomer landed up with a plum role alongside Shah Rukh Khan in a Karan Johar film.

When one further probed how important one-film old Malhotra’s role would be in Karan Johar’s film we were told, “It would be akin to what Hrithik Roshan did in Karan Johar’s ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’. Maybe slightly more prominent than Hrithik. It’s undoubtedly a dream-come-true for a semi-newcomer.”