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Bollywood superstar Salman Khan turns a year older today, on December 27. Social Media is flooded with wishes for the 59-year-old actor and fans have started celebrating the birthday of their matinee idol in different ways. While Bhaijaan, as he is fondly called by his fans, still remains unmarried, his love life has remained a constant topic of discussion. He has been romantically linked up with several actresses, with currently being Romanian model Iulia Vantur. He has had high-profile romantic link-ups with Sangeeta Bijlani, Somy Ali, Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif in the past. But, did you know that Katrina Kaif was replaced by Zareen Khan in a film and Salman played a role in it?
Actress Zareen Khan, who made her debut opposite Salman Khan in 2010's Hindi movie Veer, has a close resemblance with Katrina Kaif. Not just fans, but biggies in the industry also constantly compared her appearance with Katrina Kaif. However, Zareen had earlier claimed that this constant comparison didn't work in her favour.
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Recently, filmmaker Anil Sharma, who helmed Veer, admitted that Zareen resembles Katrina. He also revealed that initially, Katrina wanted to be a part of Veer. However, it was Salman Khan who found Zareen and asked Sharma to cast her instead.
During a recent interview with Siddharth Kanan, Sharma addressed the perception that Zareen's casting in Veer was intentional as she resembled Kat. Sharma said that during the initial phase of Veer, Salman and Katrina were working together on a film. While Kat was initially interested in being a part of Veer, the makers wanted to cast a new face. It was then that Sallu discovered Zareen and asked Sharma to meet her.
Zareen came from a humble background and Salman sent her to Sharma. The Gadar 2 helmer also revealed that the Tiger actor worked as hard as he could with her. That is how Zareen replaced Katrina in Veer. Well, Salman certainly introduced Zareen to the world but he had no role in replacing Katrina.
Earlier, during an interview with Navbharat Times, Zareen was asked about her comparison with the Dhoom 3 actress. To this, she replied that people enter the industry with a goal to create their own identity, not to be seen as a lookalike or shadow of someone else. She also expressed that despite struggling for years, she failed to establish herself in the industry. She also spoke about still being labelled as Kat's lookalike and further added that no filmmaker is interested in working with a duplicate or lookalike.
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On the work front, Salman is gearing up for Sikandar, helmed by South ace director AR Murugadoss. Well, fans are eagerly waiting to see Rashmika Mandanna opposite Salman for the first time. Sadly, the teaser of Sikandar, that was scheduled to drop today (December 27) has been postponed to December 28 in the light of passing of India's former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
