‘Raees’ actress Mahira Khan’s role chopped off, a romantic scene and a song removed?

Pakistani actress Mahira Khan is facing the brunt of the ban on Pakistani actors in Bollywood, post the Uri attacks. The actress who is all set for a Bollywood debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan in ‘Raees’ will now have to let go off some scenes of herself. Apparently, her role has been chopped off by the makers, so a romantic sequence and a song with SRK is being removed from the final edit. Hence, the actress will not have to come to India for any more shoot.

Mahira Khan’s last shoot in India was in the month of February and there was a song left to be shot with SRK. But, the Uri attacks and the subsequent ban on Pakistani artists led the makers to take this call. Sources close to an entertainment web portal state that King Khan will wrap up his introduction portions in a span of two-three days in Mumbai. So, the song shot between SRK and Mahira earlier will be there in the film, but another song which was to be canned will no longer be shot and a romantic scene between the lead actors has also gone for a toss.

According to a source close to a web portal, “Mahira is an attractive and popular Pak actress and Raees is her big-ticket Bollywood launch. But while she does play Shah Rukh’s love interest, it is not really a romantic film. Her role is like Parveen Babi’s in Yash Chopra’s 1975 crime-drama ‘Deewaar’. This one revolves around the conflict between Shah Rukh Khan who plays a bootlegger, Raees Alam, and ACP Ghulam Patel enacted by Nawaz (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) who is on his trail. So, it wasn’t difficult to trim her role which has been done with the intention of not hurting public sentiment.”

‘Raees’ is directed by Rahul Dholakia and produced by Gauri Khan, Ritesh Sidhwani and Farhan Akhtar. The movie will be releasing on January 26, 2017.

Prajakta Ajgaonkar

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