Pakistani actor Mahira Khan made her Bollywood debut alongside Shah Rukh Khan in 2017. In an interview with casting director Mukesh Chhabra on his YouTube channel, director Rahul Dholakia shared how there were many leading ladies like Deepika Padukone, Kareena Kapoor and Anushka Sharma who were considered for the part but none of them worked because of some reason. The role eventually ended in the lap of Mahira, who was co-incidentally in Mumbai during the casting process.

'The role is too small for them'

Rahul said during the interview, “We wanted an actor to play an 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. 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!”

How Mahira was cast in Raees

He went on to add, "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.”

Although it was not stated directly, Mahira shot to fame with her starring role in Humsafar, one of Pakistan's most popular drama serials.

Shah Rukh and Mahira's chemistry in Raees won favourable reviews from audiences. Raees also featured Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The film opened to a positive response, and worked well at the box office too. However, due to the ban on Pakistani artistes in the Indian film industry, she could not promote her film here. She has not appeared in any other Indian projects.

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