To secure the smooth release of his film Raees next year, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan has reportedly promised the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) chief Raj Thackeray that he won't work with Pakistani actors in the future.
Khan made this promise during an-hour long meeting at Thackeray's residence in Mumbai on Sunday evening, The Indian Express reported. "There was news in the media for past one week that SRK is going to get Mahira Khan to India for film promotions. So he came here to meet Raj saheb to tell that Mahira Khan is not coming to India for any kind of film promotion and he will also not cast any Pakistani artistes in future," Amey Khopkar of MNS told the newspaper.
Thackeray also told the media that Khan had informed him that Pakistani actress Mahira Khan, the female lead in the movie, would not be promoting Raees in India. "He (Shah Rukh) had come to inform me that rumours about Mahira Khan promoting Raees are false. He specifically came to clarify Mahira will not be a part of the promotions in India," he said.
Following the deadly terrorist attack on an army base in Uri on 18 September, which claimed the lives of 19 Indian soldiers, MNS has campaigned against Pakistani artistes working in Bollywood.
The regional right-wing party, with considerable influence in Maharashtra, had threatened to disrupt the screening of Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil because the cast included Pakistani actor Fawad Khan. Johar eventually had to promise that he would not work with Pakistani artistes in the future.
Khopar also toldThe Indian Express that MNS would not disrupt the release of any film starring a Pakistan actor, which had already been shot, but "going forward no Indian producer, director or actor will work with Pakistani artistes." "SRK too agreed to the same in his meeting with Raj Saheb," he told the newspaper.
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