It has been a year and more since ‘Raees’ was first announced, but somehow time and again the film has managed to find itself in a storm. ‘Raees’ can’t seem to let go off its controversies! And just when we thought that everything was finally falling into place for ‘Raees’, the film has now hit a yet another roadblock.
Lead actress Mahira Khan's role in the film has been chopped off to some extent. Though not entirely, but a romantic sequence and a song have been edited out. The actress will also not shoot for any o the additional scenes in the film. This move does not come as an element of surprise as post the Uri attacks there has been an ongoing debacle in regards to Pakistani artistes working in India. The makers of ‘Raees’, who were yet to shoot a song and an opening sequence of the film, have decided to do away with the song. The opening sequence also has finally been shot, and Mahira has no role to play in it.
A source close to a leading daily informed, “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 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.”
With just four days left for the trailer launch of ‘Raees’, our hopes on the film have now escalated. With so many developments post the film’s announcement, we cannot wait to watch how 'Raees' will finally turn out.
