The back-to-back debacle of Samir Karnik's "Kyun! Ho Gaya Na" and Ken Ghosh's "Fida" perhaps signals the end of on-screen collaborations for real-life couples.

The unanimous verdict? Zero screen chemistry between the real-life pairs Aishwarya Rai and Vivek Oberoi in "Kyun! Ho Gaya Na", and Kareena Kapoor and Shahid Kapur in "Fida".

Audiences don't respond favourably to real-life pairs. On the other hand, couples such as Naseeruddin Shah-Shabana Azmi and Shah Rukh Khan-Kajol who had nothing to do with each other created history.

Some years ago actress, Bhagyashree who catapulted to superstardom with "Maine Pyar Kiya" tried to do films with husband Himalaya such as "Qaid Main Hai Bulbul". Her career bombed and she was relegated to TV.

Now we've real life couple John Abraham and Bipasha Basu together in "Madhoshi", scheduled for release later this month, and Salman Khan trying to sell his friendship with Katrina Kaif to any producer who will listen.

Defending her on-screen chemistry with John, Bipasha says, "Maybe audiences didn't connect with Shahid and Kareena because she has been professionally active much longer than him. John and I play characters in 'Jism' and 'Madhoshi'. We haven't been signed together just because we're a couple in real life."

But after "Kyun! Ho Gaya Na" and "Fida", there aren't too many takers for real-life couples. Kareena and her boyfriend Shahid have one more film, Boney Kapoor's "Milenge Milenge", together. But the film is already being written off as a non-starter months before its release.

As for Aishwarya and Vivek, Deepa Mehta is keen to sign them together for her version of the Bimal Mitra novel "Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam", which was earlier made with Meena Kumari and Guru Dutt in the lead.

After the way the pair has been greeted, would this 'ideal twosome' be able to extend their real-life affinity to the screen?

There's also talk of Indra Kumar (of "Masti") bringing the Aishwarya-Vivek pair together.