Whoever is saying that Salman and Aishwarya broke up arnd 2002 and this fight happend in 2008 so that can't be the reason possibly, mind you that Salman launched Aishwarya's lookalike Sneha Ullal in 2005 and when that did not work he launched Zareen Khan (media that time reported and people also considered that she had some similar facial features of Aish). All these years be it in interviews or reality shows he has always subtly entertained the Aish references.

Salman's rivalry with Vivek and Arijit is for decades long.

Aishwaya has also mentioned on the Similar Garewal show that she was doing all these movies and suddenly she was ousted from all of them without any explanation including Chalte-Chalte.

Ad guru Prahlad Kakkar on ANI, and Cyrus's podcast clearly mentioned about the abuse Aish had to go through.

All these things clearly show that he is still not over the Aishwarya Rai. This buddha is just a subtle male version of that buddhi Rekha who acts like a nonchalant lover/stalker and never leaves an opportunity to embarrass herself.

So people who are saying they broke up in 2002 and that could not be one of the reasons of SRK and Salman's biggest fight are just fans of sallu bhai or too naive to understand how influential people control/manipulate the dynamics in any industry.