Starring Sara Ali Khan and Emraan Hashmi, ‘Ae Watan Mere Watan’ received mixed reviews from the audience and the critics upon its release. Almost four months after the release of the film, a shocking development has come to the forefront. Popular television actor, Bakhtiyaar Irani, has claimed that he was initially a part of the film, but he was replaced at the last minute.
In a conversation with Inside The Mind With Rushabh, Bakhtiyaar Irani recalled how he had met the director of ‘Ae Watan Mere Watan.’ He added that he was asked to lose weight for his role, to which he obliged. He was asked to come the following week after he lost weight to sign the contract. But that didn’t happen.
Irani said, “The director calls me, it’s (a Karan Johar production). I didn’t know, I thought I was meeting Kanan (Iyer) the director. I met him, and he told me that I was very well-built, but in the 1940s, people were puny. So, I lost 8 kgs in one and a half months and went back to him. He said, ‘Very good, agle (next) week contract signing’. Everything was done. I told my wife and family and my close circle of friends about it, I told about 30 people as I was signing it the next day. I wondered what could go wrong, so I told them. But then it didn’t happen. This is the character that Sara Ali Khan came to (for help).”
In the same conversation, he revealed that he was initially roped in to play the role of a Parsi guy. While he did not take names, he mentioned that he was replaced by a ‘bigger’ actor. He continued, “Bigger name, (not) a good actor… and I have gone through auditions, proper auditions. Kanan, the director, he loved me. Everything was proper. But I decided not to talk about it… But it was a very big jhatka (shock) for me.”
‘Ae Watan Mere Watan’ revolves around the role Usha Mehta played in the Indian Independence Movement in 1942. The film has been helmed by Kannan Iyer and it was produced by Karan Johar, Apoorva Mehta, and Somen Mishra.
