Prachi Kadam and Sayantan Dalal Actor Sanjay Dutt’s bash on Sunday night to celebrate his recently released film Agneepath’s success at the BO, apparently turned out to be a battle ground of sorts. The bash thrown at a popular suburban night club was well attended, including the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and Ajay Devgn. But the celebratory mood soon turned ugly following an apparent altercation between SRK and filmmaker Shirish Kunder, say onlookers.Khan was later also joined by Dutt.

A source present at the venue says, “Shah Rukh walked in late at the party. Shirish, who was standing near the bar, saw SRK and started making nasty comments. He also followed the star wherever he went, including the washroom. And this is when SRK got irritated and pinned him on a sofa, first trying to talk to him. But when Shirish continued to retort back, SRK slapped him.”

Amidst all this, there was also a touch of comic, said a source, when biz honcho Baba Dewan stepped in to stop the fight, thinking that a girl was being targetted. “Baba Dewan felt that SRK was fighting with a girl as Shirish was sporting long hair. He stepped in to tell SRK to stop fighting with a girl. He realised his mistake when SRK turned to look at him. In the meanwhile, Sanju arrived on the scene and separated the warring duo,” said the source. Another set of onlookers say that Sanju, after separating the duo, apparently slapped Shirish four times as he had apparently been sending inappropriate messages to his wife Maanyata.

Shirish refused to take calls from DNA, but his wife, filmmaker Farah Khan texted a pointed message, “Shah Rukh has always told me that physical abuse is the worst way to sort out a problem, that it means the person who’s hitting has either a personal or professional crisis going on. It saddens me to see him doing the same...” Ever since Farah broke off ties with Shah Rukh, who earlier produced her films, Shirish has never let an opportunity for snide comments on the actor pass, including hisRa.One, say insiders.