Ever since the drama started its production, Aangan has found a way to be in the news for one reason or the other. From real-life romance and tension between the stars of the show to the drama taking forever to finish, and then once finally on-air, the drama being unavailable for viewing online – Aangan has continued to make headlines.

The latest headline made by the drama is that Mawra Hocane, who plays one of the main characters Aaliya in the drama, was in fact supposed to play another main character in the show.

What all happened?

In the second part of the two-parter interview with SomethingHaute, Mawra was questioned about how she bagged the role of Aaliya in Aangan. Those who have read the classic novel by Khadija Mastoor would know that Aaliya is the narrator of the novel, which means her character in the drama wouldn’t have been anything less than pivotal. It is here that Mawra revealed that originally, she had been offered another role in the drama.

“Aangan was offered to me when Ehtesham bhai was shooting for Udaari. I had heard great things about him and wanted to work with him, more so after Udaari. But Aangan didn’t happen and Sammi started. However, I was offered another character at that time. I was never ‘Aaliya’ for Aangan.”

Mawra didn’t say which character she was originally supposed to do and only commented, “Everyone is playing their character so beautifully now. If I had played the other character that I was supposed to do, I would’ve played it very differently.”

Why we think Mawra was referring to Chammi

Considering Mawra’s use of the present tense while talking about this “other character”, we can deduce the character she was talking about is of Chammi. Those who follow the show would know that apart from Aaliya, only Chammi is the young female character who is still a part of the drama. Every other young female character that had any pivotal part to play in the show is already dead. If Mawra was supposed to play characters that were ultimately essayed by Sonya Hussain and Hira Mani, why would she speak of it like the character was still an active part of the story?

This deduction of Mawra being the first choice for Chammi further gains credibility when we consider that originally the role of Aaliya was to be played by none other than Mahira Khan. Yes, this might come as a bit of a surprise for most people but Mahira Khan was supposed to play the central role of Aaliya in Aangan but she couldn’t do the drama due to scheduling conflicts.

Mawra playing ‘Chammi’ to Mahira’s ‘Aaliya’ is not a scenario that is hard to visualize. The two ladies have shared the screen as Lux Girls before. One can imagine how the makers would have gotten the idea of using these two leading ladies as the main characters of a show like Aangan.

Another case of mileage problems

It is just a little ironic to see Mawra talk about the character that she didn’t end up doing when she had so boldly called out actors for gaining mileage from projects that they don’t do. Sajal Aly has garnered so much praise for her portrayal of Chammi that even indirectly bringing up that character as not originally belonging to her doesn’t sound well-intentioned.

Nevertheless, we are just trying to decipher the mystery using the facts that we know of. This conjecture of Mawra being the first choice for Chammi might turn out to be false ultimately. But if we take all the puzzle pieces and join them together, the picture that emerges is very clear. We are just saying what everyone must have thought when they watched the interview – don’t shoot the messenger!