Makers of Bollywood movies ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ and ‘Raees’ may have decided against replacing Pakistani actors Fawad Khan and Mahira Khan from their projects respectively, but ‘Dear Zindagi’ has taken the opposite path. According to reports, Pakistani actor Ali Zafar has been replaced with Tahir Bhasin in the movie.
A Gauri Shinde directorial, ‘Dear Zindagi’ has actress Alia Bhatt as the female lead and superstar Shah Rukh Khan playing her counsellor. The teasers of the movie revealed that Alia turns to an older SRK to seek guidance in life. In the movie, she plays a young filmmaker who is wooed by four men and King Khan will help her choose ‘The One’.
One of those four men was Ali Zafar but seems he is no longer a part of the movie. An insider from the project told that Tahir Bhasin has replaced Ali. The source went on to say that yesterday Alia and Tahir shot a dance number, crooned by Arijit Singh. Tahir is popular for his role of an antagonist in Rani Mukerji’s ‘Mardaani’ and will soon be seen in John Abraham and Sonakshi Sinha starrer ‘Force 2’.
Also Read: Dear Zindagi: The first teaser of Alia, SRK’s movie will make you smile (Watch)
This decision of the makers points that they want their movie to invite the least of the controversies. Recently, the demand of ban on Pakistani actors has gained a lot of attention. Owing to the hostile relations between India and Pakistan, Raj Thackrey led Maharashtra Navnirman Sena called for a ban.
Filmmaker Karan promised to give Rs 5 crore to the army relief fund in return for the smooth release of his directorial ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’.
But seems makers of ‘Dear Zindagi’ want to get away from the trouble in the initial stage only.
Ali Zafar enjoys a huge fan following in India and it was said that his younger brother Danyal will be making his Bollywood debut with Karan’s Dharma Productions. But now that KJo has vouched to never work with Pakistani artistes in the future, Danyal’s talked about debut may never happen at all.
