The Domino effect: Mahira Khan's role in Shah Rukh Khan starrer Raees cut short after ban on Pakistani artists

Mahira Khan’s Bollywood debut in the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Raees just got cut short quite drastically. The Pakistani actress reportedly had two songs in the film, one of which had been canned earlier this year. Mumbai Mirror has reported that she will not be coming back to India to shoot the second song. Also, a romantic scene between SRK and Mahira has also reportedly been chopped off. According to the source who reported to Mumbai Mirror, it was easy to cut short Mahira’s role in the film, because her role was similar to Parveen Babi’s role in Yash Chopra’s 1975 film Deewar. The film revolved around two warring brothers, Vijay and Ravi, played by Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor. Speaking about Raees, he said, “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.” After the September 18 Uri attack, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) had issued an ultimatum to Pakistani artistes to leave India and said they would not let their movies release in India. The Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association passed a resolution banning Pakistanis from working in films being made in India as they were upset that Pakistani artistes did not condemn the incident. One of the films targeted was Ae Dil Hai Mushkil; which starred Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in a small but pivotal role. Director Karan Johar dramatically reduced his role after political parties threatened to boycott the film because it starred the Pakistani actor. Mahira Khan, who became a household name her Pakistani TV show Humsafar which aired on Zindagi channel in India, meanwhile had posted on Facebook that she “condemns any act of terror, no matter which soil it is on”.