Shahrukh's birthday spirit dampens due to Karan's illness

Karan Johar's illness has put a cloud over Shah Rukh's birthday celebrations. The star who turns a year older today (November 2) has never celebrated a single birthday in the last 15 years without his friend.

Says a very close friend of both SRK and Karan, "No matter which part of the world Shah Rukh is in, Karan makes sure he joins his friend for his birthday. Shah Rukh just doesn't feel this birthday should be celebrated without Karan."

Shah Rukh Khan flew to Rome from Berlin with his son and nephew (wife Gauri's brother's son) only to find out that his buddy and producer-director Karan Johar was missing from the event at the Rome International Film Festival, where My Name Is Khan was to be screened.

Sleepless and jetlagged, Shah Rukh was suddenly told he had to handle double the number of media interviews he was originally scheduled to do.

Says a source, "Suddenly Shah Rukh was asked to also handle all the press that was lined up for Karan. As it is Kajol could not be in Rome because of her baby. On top of that Karan suddenly fell ill. The My Name Is Khan co-producers and worldwide distributors' Fox-Star thought of cancelling all the press and just go with the screening of the film. But Shah Rukh insisted on doing all the press by himself."

Vijay Singh the CEO of Fox-Star Studio is wonderstruck by King Khan's proficiency. "Karan's inability to attend the International Film Festival at Rome was a setback. Shah Rukh just saved the day. We had this grand red-carpet screening of My Name Is Khan and loads of press. Shah Rukh handled it all without skipping a beat."

Shah Rukh has returned to Berlin without Karan Johar who was supposed to accompany him. The celebrations are expected to be low-key, if not completely done away with.