Amrita Singh walks out of Arjun Kapoor's 'Mubarakan', replaced by Rathna Pathak Shah

Days after Amrita Singh walked out of Anees Bazmee’s ensemble Mubarakan, he has roped in Rathna Pathak Shah to replace Singh and play the role of Arjun Kapoor’s mother in the film. [caption id=“attachment_3125770” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Amrita Singh[/caption] Initially, Singh was signed for the film, making her fans look forward to reunion with the uncle-nephew duo of Anil Kapoor and Arjun Kapoor. Singh had co-starred with Anil in the 1986 comedy Chameli Ki Shaadi directed by Basu Chatterjee. A couple of years ago, she played the role of Arjun’s mother in 2 States directed by Abhishek Varman. She was widely appreciated for her portrayal of a rowdy Punjabi mother. That is probably why Bazmee offered her a similar role of Arjun’s Punjabi mother in Mubarakan. She was also supposed to play the elder sister to Anil’s character. However, Biz Asia reports that she walked out of the film in the eleventh hour, just hours before the mahurat (inaugural) shot on 23 November due to creative differences with the makers. That left them in a fix as the shooting schedules of Punjab and London were all planned out. However, a report by the Times of India states that producer Murad Khetani has confirmed that the senior actor had walked out because of date issues. The same report suggests that the makers have signed Rathna Pathak Shah to replace Singh in the film. “Her (Rathna’s) portion which was initially scheduled to be shot in November-December in London will now happen sometime in January. The Punjab schedule, originally planned for January, is being shot now,” says Khetani. Mubarakan revolves around the big fat Punjabi wedding and stars Arjun in the role of an eligible bachelor and Anil as his uncle and love guru. Three female actors that have been cast opposite Arjun are Neha Sharma, Ileana D’Cruz and Athiya Shetty. Rathna Pathak Shah was lauded for her role of an insecure yet concerned Punajbi mother in Shakun Batra’s Kapoor & Sons earlier this year. To see her share the screen space with the chacha-bhanja jodi of Anil and Arjun Kapoor will be a pleasure to our creative senses.