He went for her birthday, she ‘liked’ a picture of his twins, he ‘followed’ her back on Instagram but they won’t comment on their emotional reunion. Here’s Kajol and Karan Johar’s friendship status
Meena Iyer (MYMBAI MIRROR; August 9, 2017)

On Tuesday, around 2 pm, Filmfare tweeted, “Now this is the happiest news we have heard.” After a yearlong cold war, Karan Johar and Kajol have finally patched up. The news sparked speculation about what had brought the former besties together after an ugly fall-out last year around Diwali.

Mirror has learnt that on August 5, Kajol invited family and a few friends to celebrate her 43rd birthday. And she decided to extend an olive branch to her longtime friend and director by sending him an invite too. “She’s never been big on parties. It was an informal lunch. Karan sportingly turned up. They hugged, chatted for a couple of hours and Karan teared up. When he left the ice had melted. They did not touch on the issues that had created the rift,” informed a source.

The online world woke up to the reconciliation when Karan shared the first pictures of his twins, Yash and Roohi, on Raksha Bandhan. Kajol ‘liked’ the post and Karan returned the favour by hitting the ‘follow’ button on her profile.

Social media has played a significant role in this story. Last year around Diwali, Kajol’s husband Ajay Devgn and Karan had locked horns over the release of their respective films, Shivaay and Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, that faced-off at the box office. Self-appointed critic Kamaal R Khan’s revelation during a recorded phone conversation with Ajay’s longtime friend Kumar Mangat that he had been paid to sabotage Shivaay had not gone down well with the leading lady of KJo’s blockbusters Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Kabhie Khushi Kabhi Gham and My Name Is Khan. She reacted with a one-word tweet, “Shocking!”

Referring to the tweet, Karan acknowledged in his autobiography An Unsuitable Boy that that’s when he knew it was completely over for him. “She can never come back to my life… she’s killed every bit of emotion I had for her for 25 years. I don’t think she deserves me. I feel nothing for her anymore,” he raged.

Kajol and Ajay chose to maintain a stoic silence. In an interview to Mirror (Oct 24, 2016) Ajay said, “All I can say is whatever was there was over long ago and has nothing to do with professional work. There are personal reasons for it which I don’t think anybody would want to talk about.”

Kajol had been equally evasive. When prodded about her former friend, she had told Mirror (July 26), “Since you are expecting an answer, I am going to give you one. This is not the time or place to clarify. I would prefer not to speak about it.”

Their camaraderie was the stuff of industry lore, their unabashedly back-slapping could make a third person feel out of place — Rani Mukerji shifting uneasily on the sofa next to Kajol during an old episode of KJo’s talk show comes to mind. Kajol was Karan’s lucky charm, making guest appearances in films that did not feature her, and a regular fixture at Karan’s residence, pampered the most by his mother, Hiroo, and the only actresses who stood out with her frankspeak on Koffee With Karan, thereby demonstrating that she could get away with murder as far as KJo was concerned.

Meanwhile, despite acting in one of Karan’s production, Kaal, Ajay never really warmed up to his wife’s BFF but never objected to it either. This changed when he was reportedly told that Karan had been badmouthing Kajol and his family at a party. He gave Karan an earful over the phone. In February, Karan admitted to a senior journalist that he was hurt about how Ajay had responded to “hearsay” without giving him a chance to defend himself. He was equally upset with Kajol. “She should not have allowed her husband to say such things to me and even if he had, she shouldn’t have endorsed it. She should have picked up the phone and said ‘sorry’ for that entire situation,’’ he had said.

The KRK episode was the last nail in the coffin, with KJo making a full disclosure in his book: “I don’t have a relationship with Kajol anymore. We’ve had a fall-out. Something happened that disturbed me deeply which I will not talk about because it’s something that I like to protect and feel it would not be fair to her or to me. After two and half decades, Kajol and I don’t talk at all. We just acknowledge each other, say ‘hello’ and walk past.”

But, as they say, no friendship or enmity is permanent in Bollywood. According to the source, things began to change after the arrival of KJo’s twins this February. The new father sent Kajol a picture of his babies but things were far from back to normal. On July 29, Karan was seen scurrying off the stage at an awards show he was hosting when Kajol walked up to receive an award on Ajay’s behalf. Jeetendra and his son Tusshar Kapoor, who were on the stage with Kajol, looked confused by his hurried exit. He returned only after she had stepped off. Earlier, he had gone the extra mile to avoid her and Ajay at another awards show in March.

It was another text message that buried the hatchet. Kajol invited Karan to her birthday; He RSVPed ‘Yes’. “It was an emotional reunion, they genuinely care for each other,” said the source, adding that Ajay was absent from the scene. When Mirror contacted the duo, they refused to give an official comment. Their reason was interestingly the same — they feel the patch-up is in nascent stage and want to give it time before waxing eloquent about beautiful forevers.