Pakistani superstar Mahira Khan made a roaring debut in Bollywood in the year 2017 opposite Shah Rukh Khan. The film was directed by Rahul Dholakia and produced by Red Chillies Entertainment and Excel Entertainment. Raees was released in January 2017 during India's Republic Day weekend and proved to be a super hit. Mahira Khan's addition to the film also garnered much intrigue. But, do you know why Pakistani actress Mahira Khan was cast in Raees in the first place? In an interview with casting director Mukesh Chhabra on his YouTube channel, director Rahul Dholakia recently revealed how Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor Khan, and Anushka Sharma were all considered to play the female lead opposite Shah Rukh Khan. However, the role eventually went to Mahira Khan, at Shah Rukh Khan's wife Gauri Khan's mother Savita Chhibber's insistence. Co-incidentally Mahira Khan was in Mumbai during the casting process and so she was finalised.
Rahul Dholakia was quoted as saying, "We wanted an actor to play a 1980s Muslim girl. So, our first priority was to have an actress with good Hindi speaking skills, and if she had a little bit of an Urdu twang, even better. We also wanted our heroine to have an innocence. And Shah Rukh was 50, so we wanted a heroine who is at least 30-something. Now, there are very few actresses (in India), who are in their 30s with good Hindi and an innocence. There was Deepika, Kareena, and Anushka. We had these three or four heroines who met the criteria."
He further added, "But now, the problem with them was that they are too expensive and the role is too small for them. Then we went through a complete list which included Sonam and Katrina. At the end of the day, we realised this wasn’t working for us. They were not really fitting the role. Shah Rukh Khan cannot romance an Alia Bhatt!"
Speaking about what role Gauri Khan's mother played in Mahira Khan's casting, Rahul Dholakia said, "Then Gauri [Khan]'s mom had seen Mahira and my mother had seen her in some Pakistani television show. They both said: ‘Yeh ladki achi hai (This girl is good).' Honey Trehan was casting for us. I called him up and asked if he knew Mahira. He said, ‘She is here in Mumbai for some promotional work.’ He then said, ‘I will bring her tomorrow, you can audition her for the role.’ We then auditioned her at the Excel office. After the audition, I declared, ‘I have found my Aasiya'."
Raees became the 6th highest-grossing Hindi film of 2017 despite being the most pirated Hindi film of 2017 which also impacted its box office performance. Raees, made on a budget of Rs 70 crores, earned over Rs 300 crore worldwide.
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