Protests against Pakistani artistes playing roles in Bollywood led to shelving of a project featuring Fawad Khan. Vicky Kaushal bagged the lead role in the film that followed.
It was the protest against Pakistani artistes being cast in Indian films that actually led to Vicky Kaushal bagging the role of Major Vihan Shergill, the man who spearheaded the surgical strike in the film Uri.
Director Aditya Dhar was making a film with Fawad Khan and Katrina Kaif for producer Karan Johar when the protests hit the roof following the Uri attacks by Pakistan backed terrorists.
Fawad was thrown out of the film and the project was out of the window despite it being at the preproduction stage. Karan also had to cut short Fawad’s role in his directorial Ae Dil Hai Mushkil because of the same reason.
“Dhar was intrigued by the surgical strike and worked on a script for the same. As a result the film got made and I got the role. It is interesting that the director lost an actor in a film because of the surgical strike and another actor (me) for the role because of it with the same director in another film,” says Vicky Kaushal.
—Sanskriti Media
