Amitabh Bachchan defended Aishwarya Rai for leaving this film midway, Kareena Kapoor replaced her; movie flopped, earned only...

In May 2011, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Madhur Bhandarkar announced their first collaboration Heroine at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. However, a few months later, Aishwarya stepped away from the project due to her pregnancy. She gave birth to her and Abhishek Bachchan's first child, Aaradhya, in November 2011. Kareena Kapoor eventually replaced the former Miss World.

Following Aishwarya's exit from the film, director Madhur Bhandarkar alleged that she had "hidden the truth" about her pregnancy. Reports also surfaced claiming that her withdrawal caused UTV, the production house, a financial loss of approximately Rs 18 crore. In response, her father-in-law Amitabh Bachchan strongly refuted these claims and came to her defense.

In an interview with DNA, Amitabh said, "Everybody knew that Aishwarya was married when she signed the film. So you mean to say that actors can’t get married or have children? I don’t think this can be a part of any contract that you cannot get married or have children if you working in a project. Whatever has happened between Aishwarya, Madhur (Bhandarkar, co-producer) and UTV (co-producer) is between them. I know that the rumours going around are not true. I hope that the truth comes out soon."

A source close to the actress was also quoted telling DNA, "They have not paid her anything for the film. All this hue and cry about losses is false as they had only shot for seven to 10 days, out of which the first few days were spent in photo-shoots and location shoots. The actual film shooting hadn’t even begun. Ash is very upset with the fact that she’s being targeted for being pregnant — a time when people should be happy for her."

Released on September 21, 2012, Heroine eventually flopped at the box office as it earned just Rs 45 crore net in India against its budget of Rs 50 crore. The drama also starred Randeep Hooda, Arjun Rampal, Sanjay Suri, Shahana Goswami, Divya Dutta, and Mugdha Godse in supporting roles.

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