Shah Rukh Khan to REPLACE Mahira Khan in Raees! The stand-off between Pakistan and India has just claimed its first casualty in Bollywood. Pakistani actress Mahira Khan has been eased out of Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Raees, due for release on the Republic Day weekend, according to reliable sources. Says a source in the know how, “It was a very painful decision for producer Ritesh Sidhwani to take. The pressure to replace her had been building up for months. It reached a crescendo after the Uri attacks. It came to a point where it became impossible to shoot with any Pakistani artiste. People suggested all kinds of solutions to the impasse, including shooting in Dubai. But it didn’t seem viable. Now, Mahira has unfortunately been relieved of her duties.”
Earlier we had revealed to you how Raees’ shooting is still incomplete. A few opening sequences between Shah Rukh Khan and his wife in the movie Mahira Khan are yet to be filmed, without which Raees would look incomplete. Raees was scheduled to release on January 26 next year and so the makers were not in a hurry to finish the shoot. After shooting for all the major portions, Shah Rukh shifted his attention to his films with Alia Bhatt (Dear Zindagi) and Anushka Sharma (The Ring). SRK was apparently going to shoot for the remaining bits of Raees in November. However the recent ban has complicated all the scenario. A recent report in a leading tabloid revealed to us that while SRK can still shoot his scenes in Mumbai, it is impossible for Mahira to shoot here. The makers would ideally have to shoot with her part in some foreign location, but the problem is that the song sequence requires both – Shah Rukh and Mahira. But as we told you above, the makers don’t think it is viable and hence, they are planning to replace her with another B-town actress.