When Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Expected Rani Mukerji To Reach Out To Her After Being Unceremoniously Replaced From Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Chalte Chalte’ By Her: “… This Wasn’t Too Much To Expect?”
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan reportedly even shot some scenes for Shah Rukh Khan's Chalte Chalte before being replaced by Rani Mukerji.
When Aishwarya Rai Bachchan Expected Rani Mukerji To Reach Out To Her After Taking Over Her Role In Chalte Chalte Opposite Shah Rukh Khan. (Photo Credit – IMDb/Instagram)
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The entertainment business is a competitive space where one person’s loss is another’s gain. It sometimes creates a rough patch between people’s relationships. For example, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was hurt when Rani Mukerji replaced her in Shah Rukh Khan’s Chalte Chalte. SRK and Aishwarya opened up about it during their interviews. Things might have turned normal now, but the former Miss World expected her friend Rani to inform her about the switch personally; scroll below to know more.
The movie was released in 2003 with Shah Rukh and Rani as the lead. It was produced by SRK and Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment. The romance drama was directed by Aziz Mirza, who also directed SRK in Phir Bhi Dil Hai Hindustani and Asoka before that. All three actors were at the peak of their careers, with Rani having a significant hit with Saathiya in 2002. It received multiple nominations at the 49th Filmfare Awards.
For the unversed, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was initially cast opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Chalte Chalte. She even shot some parts of the films before being replaced by Rani Mukerji without any explanation. The Guru actress once opened up about Simi Garewal on her chat show; apart from that, a Redditor posted a picture of a newspaper interview where Aishwarya seemingly addressed this topic in an interview with a publication. The name of the media outlet is not visible in the picture.
According to the interview snippet shared on r/BollyBlindsNGossip, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan expected Rani Mukerji to reach out to her and share the news of the swap in Chalte Chalte as the lead herself. She said, “All I expected Rani to do was to make one phone call to me saying she was stepping into my role. Surely we were friends… and this wasn’t too much to expect?”
While speaking to Simi Garewal, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan revealed that back then, there were tall of a couple of films that she and SRK would be working on, but suddenly, they weren’t happening, and there were no explanations for them. She also mentioned that it was not her decision not to do those movies.
Meanwhile, Shah Rukh Khan, once in an interview, apologized to Aishwarya and explained that although he was the film’s producer, he was not the only one pouring their money into it. His hands were tied, and he was personally saddened by how things went down.
