Lyricist and filmmaker Gulzar is a man who has been in Bollywood long before any one of the top stars of the present times even thought of making a career out of acting. The kind of respect with which the young and old of Bollywood see the still highly productive man can be ascertained from a single incident.

Refusing a request from the omnipotent Shah Rukh Khan and still remaining in the good books of the superstar is a rarity in today's Bollywood.

SRK wanted Gulzar ji, known for his poetic lyrics, to include the words "Love mera hit hit" for a particular song in the recently released film 'Billu'.

Shah Rukh even went to Gulzar's house and made the request urging that the words be somehow sandwiched into the song.

But Gulzar has never listened to what the stars wanted him to do and has no intention to do so in the future too. Only SRK can say whether he went to Gulzar even after being fully aware of the ways and preferences of the writer while putting down the words.

May be Shah Rukh must have thought that he can somehow persuade the veteran to consider his wish perchance things have not seemed to work his way.

King Khan's pleas never reached anywhere and Gulzar instead of writing all the songs of 'Billu' left the project midway after penning the words for just three songs.

For SRK, it must have been a novel experience being rejected by someone. For Gulzar, it is nothing new.

The history of Bollywood has many instances when the master writer has said goodbye to a project or just deserted a film half way into writing lyrics because of being asked to work forgetting his principles.

A man who strictly goes by his rules we should say.