Team Raees is making calculated moves to ensure the film witnesses a smooth release on January 26. After rolling out a unique marketing strategy, the filmmakers have now cut Mahira Khan's role to size so to avoid chaos ahead of the film's release.
A romantic scene and one of the two songs with Shah Rukh has apparently dropped from Raees, an insider informed Mumbai Mirror. The Pakistan-based actress was last seen in Bhuj, filming the nikaah (wedding) sequence with SRK.
After the Uri attack impacted Bollywood films, there was an idea that the cast and crew of Raees would fly to undisclosed locations to film portions of the crime-thriller with Mahira and Shah Rukh. However, the superstar was spotted at one of Mumbai's studios working on his introduction scene all by himself.
Interestingly, Mahira didn't have much part to play in Raees as it's hardly a romantic film. Her role is more like Parveen Babi's in Yash Chopra's Deewar.
"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," the source further elaborated.
A few weeks ago, there was quite a bit of noise about how Mahira will be dropped from the film completely and that the makers are looking out for actresses who can fill her shoes. Co-producer Ritesh Sidhwani clarified reports by saying that the actress is not being replaced adding that she has shot 45 days straight for the film.
"I was not reacting to such reports or commenting because I feel that when someone speculates something and you go and respond to it, you are providing a platform to such speculations and rumours. I feel it is better to ignore such things. I don't want to talk about 'Raees', I am here to cheer for my wife," he further told the media.
