The duo sizzled the screen every time they paired up, whether for Mohabbatein or Devdas, Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan always had the audience glued with their fiery chemistry. The B-town couple was so much in demand, back in the day, that they had signed at least five films together. However, as things soured between them, Aishwarya was found promptly dropped from all the films.
As per media reports, it all started when Ash’s ex Salman Khan drunkenly created a mess on the sets of Shah Rukh’s production, Chalte Chalte. SRK definitely didn’t take it very kindly, and soon replaced Aishwarya with Rani Mukerji. Similarly, she lost out on a bunch of other films with Shah Rukh, which also included Veer Zaara.
Aishwarya had opened up about it in an interview in the past, when she was asked what led to her ouster, to which Ash replied; “How can I have the answer to that? Yes, at the time, there was talk of a couple of films that we would be working in together. And then, suddenly they weren’t happening, without any explanation whatsoever. I have never had the answer to why.”
Shah Rukh had told India Today in an interview in 2003, “To start a project with someone and then change her for no fault of hers is very difficult. It is very sad as Ash is a good friend. Personally I think I did wrong. But as a producer it made sense. I apologised to Ash.”
But at the time of her removal, Aishwarya was not given any explanation. She told Simi, “At the time, when you have no explanation, you obviously are taken aback, confused and of course, hurt. You wonder about it.”
Aishwarya added that though she was upset, she never asked Shah Rukh about his reasons. “It’s not in my nature. I think if a person wants to explain it, they will do it on their own. If they never did, they never intended to. I would probably question within myself but I wouldn’t go up to a person and ask why,” she said.
However, Aishwarya and Shah Rukh eventually put this phase behind them. After not working together for over a decade, the two reunited on screen briefly in Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, where SRK had a cameo appearance as Aishwarya’s ex-husband.
