Mahira's introduction to Bollywood cut short

After the Uri attacks on September 18 and the demand by certain political parties for a ban on Pakistani actors working in India, talent from across the border have been worrying about their fate in Bollywood. While Fawad Khan, Imran Abbas and Ali Zafar managed to hold on to their cameos in Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Gauri Shinde's Dear Zindagi, Mirror has learnt that Mahira Khan's appearance in her debut Hindi film, Rahul Dholakia's upcoming gangster drama, Raees, has been truncated.
In February, Mahira and Shah Rukh had shot in Bhuj, followed by a schedule in Ahmedabad where they filmed their nikaah, before moving to the streets of Mumbai. SRK was spotted driving a classic jeep with his begum sitting demurely besides him holding a baby. That was the last time the Pakistani actress was seen in India.
Mirror (October 7) had earlier reported that SRK and she have yet to shoot their opening sequences, as also a song. But the Badshah is currently shooting his introduction scene alone in Mumbai and will wrap up all his portions in two-three days. On Thursday, around 1.30 am, he drove down from Madh Island after pack-up for filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar's housewarming bash.
But according to a source close to the development, Mahira won't be back in India for any further shoots, nor will the unit be going abroad to film with her. Reportedly she had two songs but will now have to be content with just the one that has already been canned. A romantic sequence between SRK and her has also been sacrificed.
'Mahira is an attractive and popu lar Pakistani actress and Raees is her big-ticket Bollywood launch. But while she does play Shah Rukh's love interest, it is not really a romantic film. Her role is like Parveen Babi's in Yash Chopra's 1975 crime-drama Deewaar. That one revolved around two warring brothers, Vijay and Ravi, played by Amitabh Bachchan and Shashi Kapoor. 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,' informs the source.