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It was one of the late Dhirubhai Ambani’s pet theories on social mobility — orbiting. This is how he explained it: people are constantly graduating to new hierarchical trajectories. It could be a slightly elevated group of friends, a grander community of business associates, or a more exalted posse of peers. Evolution, as Dhirubhai explained it, was the survival of the most socially fit and the beast was relentlessly ‘aspirational’. We are all looking for a higher branch of the pecking order to perch on.

But what sets the boys apart from the men is this business of orbiting. The fitter ones schmoozed in their new orbit for a short while and then ejected themselves effortlessly into a loftier ambience, a more superior setting, an even more eminent group of cronies. And so on and so forth. To vertiginous heights. At dizzying intervals.

Now think of Shah Rukh Khan and Karan Johar. Remember the time not so long ago when the two seemed joined at the hip? Doing films together, exchanging wardrobes, holidaying in London, Shah Rukh had even reserved an entire floor for Karan in the actor’s slowly rising tower block coming up beside his home in Bandra.

But as Shah Rukh enjoys the success of Om Shanti Om and Chak De, purrs in the shadow of his friendship with the Gandhis, lords over the sports world with his IPL team, poses beside his wax work models in London and Paris, and presses his ubiquitous self on our television screens, is it not the case that he has orbited right out of Karan Johar’s company and into his own stratosphere?

I am not suggesting that Karan Johar has failed in any way. His is still one of the most talented presences in Bollywood. But Karan Johar, for all his blockbusters, his insights, and his proximity to Gauri Khan, has just not kept up with the dazzling trajectory of his superstar friend. To put it bluntly, Karan Johar has been out-classed. And who would not be, alongside SRK’s astounding round of orbiting. Want some more evidence? Remember when Bollywood insiders were talking about the three Khans readying to wrest the Bachchan mantle? But how long has it being since you heard of Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukhspoken in the same breath?

Salman’s jail stints, his bad luck in the GF department, and his preoccupation with his pecs seems seem to have dimmed his star-rating. And Aamir’s intensity, sincerity and penchant for taking the road less travelled seem to have removed him unwittingly from the race.

Meanwhile, Shah Rukh has orbited on. From a cute, dimpled actor, he has morphed into a deliverer of bankable box office hits, an articulate, often garrulous interviewee, the outspoken film awards compere, the buyer of cricket teams — Shah Rukh has outclassed every one he has hung out with.

How has he done it? My take is that he was born with a deadly natural intuition that propels him ever upwards like a guided missile. That, and his supreme confidence.

To take on the lofty Bachchan is one thing, but to rub shoulders as if to the manor born with billionaires like Mukesh Ambani is another. I watched Shah Rukh being felicitated by the Ambanis at one of his recent birthdays. He accepted the showering of gifts and praise with no false modesty and much as his due. Or this: When he was told that his presence with Rahul and Priyanka at cricket matches made the public wonder if he was going to join politics, the Badshah replied: why don’t people wonder if their proximity to me will make them want to join films? What next? Dinner with Obama, lunch with Sarkozy, breakfast with Bono? A certain Mr D Ambani must be admiring from the skies.

Email: s_malavika@dnaindia.net