Aishwarya Rai shot Chalte Chalte for a day, director Aziz Mirza recalls why Rani Mukerji replaced her

Chalte Chalte starred Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji in the lead roles. The film was released in 2003.

Shah Rukh Khan and Rani Mukerji's Chalte Chalte was a box office success upon release in 2003. Fans loved the chemistry between the two leads and Rani received praised for her performance. But did you know Rani was not the first choice for the film? It was Aishwarya Rai who was originally cast in the film, and even shot for a day. Director Aziz Mirza told in a new interview with Radio Nasha Official what made the change in casting. (Also read: When Aishwarya Rai was ‘hurt’ about being removed from five films: 'Became obvious that it can happen to me too')

Aishwarya Rai was originally cast in Chalte Chalte opposite Shah Rukh Khan.

What the director said

During the interview, Aziz recalled the memories of Chalte Chalte and said, “I don't know. Anyway. These are areas which are unfortunately… we had done only that one song that we had started… that song with the truck named Prem Nagariya ki… that began only for a day and unfortunately the matter did not go ahead. Then Rani came in.”

Aziz when on to add that Rani did an ‘excellent’ job in the film. She played the role of Priya Chopra in the film.

More details

Although Aziz did not directly state the reason why Aishwarya was replaced in the film, several reports suggest personal issues related to Aishwarya's then relationship and subsequent fallout with Salman Khan as a contributing factor to the replacement.

Aishwarya had talked about this incident on Rendezvous with Simi Garewal where she said that never got the reason why she was removed from multiple films in quick succession.

Aishwarya and Shah Rukh went on to work in Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas. They were last seen together in Karan Johar's Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in 2016. On the work front, Aishwarya was last seen in Mani Ratnam's Ponniyin Selvan: 2.