Aziz Mirza began shooting his fourth film, Chalte Chalte, with Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the lead roles. The duo began the shoot by filming the song “Prem Nagariya”. However, for reasons best known to the makers, Aishwarya was replaced, and Rani Mukerji was brought in to play the female lead.
In a recent interview with Radio Nasha Official, Aziz opened up about the decision to replace Aishwarya with Rani in Chalte Chalte. When asked, “What went wrong with Aishwarya? You started the film with her…,” a visibly disappointed Mirza politely declined to reveal the exact reason, saying, “I don’t know. Anyway, these are the areas we unfortunately…” When asked, “Kaafi shoot kar liya tha? (Had you shot a lot with her?),” he clarified, “No, we had only shot the ‘Prem Nagariya’ song with her. We shot for just a day. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out the way we had hoped, and then Rani came on board.”
This was the first time Aziz Mirza chose not to cast Juhi Chawla opposite Shah Rukh Khan, as his first three films had featured the duo as the leads. When asked if there was a reason for not casting Juhi in Chalte Chalte, Mirza explained that he felt it was time for a change. “I just thought people might want to see someone different. Juhi would have been as good as anyone. Not that Rani was bad—Rani was as good as ever,” he said.
Previously, a video of Shah Rukh Khan regretting replacing Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in Chalte Chalte went viral. In the video, the actor can be heard saying, “As a producer, my hands were tied because I am not the only producer. I have a team of people. 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 saddened 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.”
It is said that Aishwarya Rai was dating Salman Khan at that time and the latter allegedly created a ruckus on the film’s set which forced the makers to replace her in Chalte Chalte.
