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Raees director asks for Pakistani actors comeback in Bollywood, angry netizen says ‘Abe bhikari’

Rahul had Pakistani actress Mahira Khan as the lead actress alongside Shah Rukh Khan in his 2016 movie Raees

New Delhi:  The 4-year-long wait is finally over and ICC men’s ODI World Cup 2023 is knocking right at the door.

Just like all the other teams, the Pakistani cricket team along with their support staff has also landed in India to participate in the popular cricket tournament after a long gap of seven years.

Earlier after the infamous 26/11 Mumbai terror attack (2008), the Indian Government prohibited the entry of Pakistani players into the country and as a result, they were also banned from participating in the Indian Premier League’s (IPL) following seasons.

However, when India was announced as the host of 2016’s T20 World Cup, the government was compelled to lift the ban and allow Pakistani players to enter into India and participate in the tournament.

In the same year, history repeated itself one more time as Pakistan-supported Jaish-e-Mohammed militants launched a deadly attack on an Indian army camp in Kashmir’s Uri and killed 19 soldiers.

The attack shook the entire nation and anger against Pakistani artists and cricketers soared up again in the masses one more time. As a result, the Indian government had to once again ban Pak professionals from entering or working in India.  Ever since then, none of the Pakistani artists was allowed to visit India.

Now, after seven years since the Uri attack, India has opened its doors once again for the arrival of the Pakistani cricket team and the same has triggered a reaction from the director of Shah Rukh Khan’s 2016 super hit movie Raees.

Rahul Dholakiya’s question infuriates netizens

On Friday, the famous director Rahul Dholakiya, took to his Twitter (X) handle to share his question from the masses.

In his tweet, Rahul wondered if he could invite Pakistani artists and musicians to work in India once again and wrote, “Now that Pakistani cricketers are officially here, can we also invite Pakistani actors to act in our films? Or Musicians to perform?”

However, his question didn’t go well with the netizens who got irked and slammed the director for asking something like that.

Responding to his question one user wrote, “Why don’t you go to Pakistan & stay there for forever to enjoy Pakistani movies & their musician’s music.”

Another said, “I don’t think anyone will have a problem if a Pakistani plays the role of a terrorist”

“Pakistan ke liye pyar bahut chalak raha hai. Itna agar Pakistan Prem hai to Pakistan Jake a sakte hai.”, commented a third user

Here are some more reactions:

For the uninformed, Rahul had Pakistani actress Mahira Khan as the lead actress alongside Shah Rukh Khan in his 2016 movie Raees. The movie also marked the Bollywood debut of the gorgeous actress who despite being one of the leads in the film was prohibited from promoting it due to the ban imposed on Pakistani actors post the infamous Uri attacks.

Besides Mahira, several other Pakistani artists including singer/actor Ali Zafar from the entertainment industry were affected by the ban as massive protests against the movies featuring Pakistani artists were demonstrated in different parts of the country.

Pak artist Fawad Khan has worked in numerous Indian films including Khubsurat (2014), Kapoor and Sons (2016) and Ai Dil hai Mushkil (2016) while Ali Zafar has also been a part of many Bollywood movies like Mere Brother ki Dulhan (2011) Total Siyappaa (2014), Kill Dill  (2014) and Dear Zindagi (2016).