When Shah Rukh Khan Felt 'Bad' About Replacing Aishwarya Rai in Chalte Chalte: 'I Feel Very Sorry...'

It is no secret that Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai were the first choice for Chalte Chalte. The film, produced under Shah Rukh and Juhi Chawla’s company called Dreamz Unlimited, had already begun filming when Aishwarya was replaced midway and Rani Mukerji was brought in. Appearing on the Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Aishwarya had revealed that she was replaced “without any explanation whatsoever.”

Now, a video has surfaced on Reddit in which Shah Rukh opened up about replacing Aishwarya and confessed he was ‘saddened’ by the turn of events. Calling her a ‘very close friend’, Shah Rukh said that as a producer, his hands were tied and the decision was made by everyone involved on the producer table.

“Very saddened at the fact that Aishwarya was a very close friend, I have done some really marvelous films with her and I genuinely mean that. She has been one of my favourite co-actresses and we’ve done some really nice work — Josh, Mohabbatein, Devdas — and enjoyed together, and we get along really well. Personally, it is very saddening not to… for something to reach at this level. I feel very sorry about it and I genuinely do,” he said in the clip shared on the platform.

“As a producer, my hands were tied because I am not the only producer. I have a team of people and this time we also have UTV who is working with us. The collective decision of 10-11 people. We were also not been doing very well as producers. That was at stake. The whole company’s reputation is at stake, we wanted to finish the film in three to four months. Personally if you ask me, Aishwarya is very professional but I think we were a little sadden by the whole affair and we thought it wasn’t meant to be. It was not superstition, it was a professional decision and even professionally we feel very bad. There’s no two ways about it,” Shah Rukh added.

Aishwarya and Shah Rukh weren’t only starring in Chalte Chalte. They were also on board for four other movies, including Munna Bhai MBBS and Veer Zaara. The films eventually didn’t pan out as per plans. The two actors did share the screen space for over a decade after the incident. They eventually reunited in 2016, in Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil which SRK had a cameo, playing Aishwarya’s ex-partner. They shared a pivotal scene in the movie.