Was Shah Rukh Khan invited to promote Dear Zindagi on Bigg Boss?

Just as fans expected Shah Rukh Khan to appear on reality television show Bigg Boss hosted by Salman Khan, Shah Rukh decided to give it a miss. His Dear Zindagi co-star Alia Bhatt will make an appearance alone on the show. The special episode will be aired today (18 November).

Shah Rukh had visited the Bigg Boss sets for the ninth edition last year after an invitation from Salman post their public patch-up at an iftaar party.

Buzz has it that not-so-impressive TRPs of Bigg Boss season 10 may have dissuaded Shah Rukh from appearing on the show. Host Salman, too, hasn’t been enjoying the season, having told the contestants in an episode that most audiences are finding them boring. He even read out a few audience grievance tweets.

“There is no official or unofficial reason for Shah Rukh Khan not coming on the show. Usually, such calls are taken by the marketing and programming teams,” said a source close to the show. There was no response to communication attempts made to get a response from the channel officials. 

There was also no official comment from the PR machinery of Dear Zindagi. “Maybe SRK has no time. However, it must be pointed out that Dear Zindagi is largely Alia Bhatt’s film. And if you see from the promotions so far, it is mostly Alia who is promoting the film. You haven’t seen the other male co-stars (Angad Bedi, Kunal Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapoor).”

Given that Shah Rukh has hardly made any appearances for promoting Dear Zindagi, it appears that the makers are largely promoting Dear Zindagi as Bhatt's film. Shah Rukh is one of the producers of the film.