/> Contrary to reports being strategically placed in sections of the media, the mighty thespian Dilip Kumar isn't playing Shah Rukh Khan's father in the Viveik Vaswani comedy Dulha Mil Gaya.

The Thespian's wife Saira Banu personally denies any such plans for her 84-year old husband. Beyond that the gracious couple refuses to say anything.

But a close family friend has a lot to say about such arbitrary and illusory attempts to bring the two Khan superstars together.

"Actually the Dilip Kumar –SRK ties go back a long way. Both are pathans and share a common passion for cinema.

There's a more- than- passing facial resemblance between the two What clinched the matter was Mrs Dilip Kumar's declaration some years ago at an awards function that if she and her husband had a son he'd probably look like Shah Rukh.

The idea of casting them as father and son must have been born then. But if the two do come together it'd hardly be in a comedy like Dulha Mil Gaya where SRK has a mere guest appearance."

Subhash Ghai had offered the Thespian a film called Homeland last year. Prior to that J.P Dutta wanted to cast Dilip Kumar as Abhishek Bachchan's father in the historical Aakhri Mughal. Neither project materialized.

The last film where the mighty Thespian made a screen appearance was Umesh Mehra's Quila. That was nine years ago.