Aishwarya Rai and Shah Rukh Khan once enjoyed a close friendship, having starred together in several successful films including Josh, Mohabbatein, and Devdas. However, their relationship took a professional downturn when Shah Rukh allegedly replaced Aishwarya in several of his hit projects, most notably in Chalte Chalte (2003), where Rani Mukerji took over her role. While the incident occurred years ago and both stars have progressed in their careers, it has been suggested that Aishwarya’s removal was influenced by disturbances caused by Salman Khan due to his personal relationship with her.
In a past episode of Rendezvous with Simi Garewal, Aishwarya shared her feelings about being unexpectedly dropped from Shah Rukh’s films. “How can I have the answer to that?” she remarked, further stating, “There was talk of several projects we would collaborate on, and then suddenly they were off the table without any explanation. I still don’t know why.”
When Simi Garewal mentioned that Shah Rukh had expressed remorse in an interview, attributing the situation to his involvement in her personal life, Aishwarya replied, “I don’t have the answer to that,” stressing that it was not her choice to withdraw from those films.
Aishwarya was initially the preferred choice for Chalte Chalte, a project produced by Shah Rukh and Juhi Chawla’s Dreamz Unlimited. Filming had already commenced when Aishwarya was replaced by Rani Mukerji. Notably, neither Shah Rukh nor Aishwarya has publicly acknowledged Salman Khan’s role in the events.
“At that time, with no explanation, I was left feeling shocked, confused, and hurt. I found myself wondering why this happened. It’s not in my nature to confront someone about such matters. If someone feels the need to explain, they will; if they don’t, then they probably have no intention of doing so. I prefer not to delve into questioning the reasons behind actions,” she explained.
Aishwarya also reflected on how Shah Rukh did not give her space to process the situation. “I never found myself in a place where I was suddenly faced with multiple films disappearing from my schedule and no career direction, wondering ‘what now and why?’” she added.
In a 2003 interview with India Today, Shah Rukh expressed his regret over the decision to replace Aishwarya, admitting it was a mistake. Commenting on Chalte Chalte, he said, “It’s challenging to begin a project with someone and then switch them out for no valid reason. It’s sad because Ash is a good friend. Personally, I believe I made a mistake, though from a production standpoint, it made sense. I apologized to Ash.”
A resurfaced interview clip on Reddit revealed Shah Rukh lamenting, “It’s very disheartening for things to escalate to this point. I genuinely feel sorry about it… As a producer, I was constrained since I’m not the sole producer. There’s a team involved, and at that time we were also collaborating with UTV. The decision was made collectively by a group of about 10 or 11 people, and we were not faring well as producers, which added to the pressure.”
The last time Aishwarya Rai and Shah Rukh Khan appeared together was in Karan Johar’s romantic drama Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in 2016, which also featured Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma in leading roles.
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