Shah Rukh Khan was seen quietly slipping into space as 'Bauua Singh', a dwarf from Meerut in North India. Before the film was released it was being said that Shah Rukh was in fact stepping into the spacesuit vacated by Aamir Khan in the role of Rakesh Sharma, India’s first astronaut in space.

But Shah Rukh delayed the launch. In January when Aamir was asked about SRK backing out of the biopic, he said, “Isn’t Shah Rukh Khan doing that film? Those are only reports, let’s wait until he makes an announcement about it.”

Shah Rukh never made an announcement. But he isn’t the kind of soul who sulks in the shadows. The actor, who is also a producer, churned out his first offering for the OTT platform Netflix 'Bard Of Blood' starring Emraan Hashmi and then got another one 'Betaal' to haunt the same digital entity. While there was a lot of hoopla about the shows, they didn’t really shatter the ceiling. He is now readying his next oeuvre 'Class of ’83' starring Bobby Deol and Shriya Saran to stream on the platform soon.

While on films Shah Rukh Khan managed to make a sizable profit as a producer again with the Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu starrer 'Badla' directed by Sujoy Ghosh. The film grossed a whopping Rs 89 crores at the Indian box office and a lot more outside as well. King Khan also green-lighted a ready film 'Kaamyaab' about a veteran character artiste – in what seemed like a veritable spin off to his character of Om Makhija in 'Om Shanti Om'. The film got its share of accolades. Shah Rukh Khan also started another film called 'Bob Biswas' with Abhishek Bachchan in a spin off from the villainous character of Sujoy Ghosh’s film 'Kahaani' which got Vidya Balan into the top league. Bob Biswas is helmed by Sujoy’s daughter Diya Annapurna Ghosh.

Shah Rukh has been rumoured to be part of many projects, but the horse has neither said a ‘haan’ or a ‘neigh’!

But in April, Shah Rukh Khan fans went into overdrive minutes into a session of #AskSRK that took place. The actor took to Twitter and asked his fans to throw questions at him and an answer to a rather innocuous question sent them into raptures while pointed questions on his next project announcement were smothered by the actor’s wit and repartee. "Which director would you love to work with? Martin Scorsese or Christopher Nolan?" was the query.

“Wow, both are awesome and I have met them...but Raju apna sa lagta hai...nahi?”

Was Shah Rukh Khan’s reply throwing a subtle hint as to who the next director could be? Multiple names too were being tossed up, but then, Shah Rukh now finally let out one name and rather too quietly. It can be recalled that both Atlee as well as Raj And DK who have also discussed projects with Shah Rukh Khan let their respective cats out of the bags – and the Munnabhai series, 3 Idiots and PK director Rajkumar Hirani is the only one who had kept mum and SRK hinted his name.

Shah Rukh was spotted recently shooting a tribute to his fans at his home and was seen with long locks. Fans are excited to now see the new avatar of Khan and hope that he would retain his look in the Hirani film. But he needs to announce that first! Shah Rukh’s silence this time has a meaning. He wants to make a comeback after Zero. As someone said, “Zero is a great number to begin from!”