‘Mahira Khan stays in Raees’, says Farhan Akhtar

Totally dismissing rumours of Mahira Khan s ouster from Raees, the film s co-producer Farhan Akhtar says they ve no plans of replacing her. Reliable sources say the Raees team seriously contemplated changing its leading lady.

What can I say? We ve completed her shooting. The film is ready for release. If we had shot the film after the recent developments (the deterioration in Indo-Pak relations) we would have certainly not worked with any artiste from Pakistan, says Farhan, reiterating his belief that Karan Johar s film was rightly released on time in spite of the Pakistani presence in the cast.

It (the attempts to stop Johar s film) should not have happened in the first place. Karan started the film a year ago. Is he supposed to pay a retrospective penalty? asks Farhan.

Discounting all possibilities of offering the army Rs. 5 crore as penalty for the Pakistani presence, as suggested by the MNS, Farhan says, How we choose to show our solidarity with our brave jawaans is up to us. I don t think anyone outside the Indian government is authorized to brief us on how to deal with our conscience.