How Katrina Kaif’s missed opportunity in ‘Raat Baaki’ turned out to be a game changer for Vicky Kaushal’s career

The latest celebrity couple Vicky Kaushal and Katrina Kaif tied the knot at the Six Senses Fort Barwara Hotel, Rajasthan on December 9 in a dreamy wedding. Vicky and Katrina officially confirmed their wedding when the couple shared exquisite pictures from the intimate ceremony on their Instagram accounts on Thursday evening. The couple left Jaipur on Friday morning in a helicopter post their wedding festivities at the royal venue in Sawai Madhopur.

In an interesting co-incidence, one of the shelved projects starring Katrina Kaif actually turned out to be a game changer for Vicky Kaushal's career in the Bollywood. Director Aditya Dhar was supposed to make his debut with a romantic drama titled 'Raat Baaki' with Katrina Kaif and Fawad Khan in lead roles. When he was about to start its shooting in September 2016, the terrorist attacks happened in Uri and the Indian government retaliated with the surgical strikes after a few days. This led to Pakistani actors getting banned from working in India by the Indian Motion Pictures Producers' Association (IMPPA). 

'Raat Baaki' obviously got stalled and Aditya Dhar took upon himself to search about the Uri attacks. His efforts led to him making 'Uri: The Surgical Strike' that eventually was released in 2019. The film is Vicky Kaushal's biggest blockbuster earning more than Rs 300 crores at the global box-office. His performance was widely appreciated by the critics as well. The actor and the director even received the Best Actor and Best Director honours at the National Film Awards for the film.

In a past interview with DNA, Aditya Dhar said, "My previous movie Raat Baaki with Fawad Khan and Katrina Kaif didn’t happen because the terrorist attacks took place and within the next few days, the surgical strike happened. Now, as filmmakers and in life, you have to turn all the disappointments into opportunities. You have to make the best of what you have in hand. While we were trying to figure out who to recast, I wanted to know more about the surgical strike because suddenly that sounded like a great story."

As per reports, Aditya Dhar revived his shelved project 'Raat Baaki' as a producer earlier this year. The film  will now star his actress-wife Yami Gautam and 'Scam 1992' star Pratik Gandhi.