In the wake of rising geopolitical tensions between India and Pakistan, Pakistani actors have started disappearing—digitally at least—from Bollywood promotional materials on major music platforms. Notably, Mahira Khan and Fawad Khan, who played pivotal roles in Raees and Kapoor & Sons respectively, have been removed from the posters of these film albums on platforms like Spotify and YouTube Music.
This quiet but symbolic purge seems to be part of a broader industry trend, with Pakistani talent gradually being erased from the Indian digital entertainment ecosystem. The move follows recent edits to the Sanam Teri Kasam album art, where actress Mawra Hocane was removed, leaving co-star Harshvardhan Rane as the sole face on the cover. A similar visual change has now hit the Raees album. The original artwork—which previously featured Shah Rukh Khan with Mahira Khan—has been revised to show Shah Rukh Khan alone. Mahira’s role in the film, though central, has effectively been whitewashed from its online music presence.
Fawad Khan, too, appears to have been scrubbed from the album art of Buddhu Sa Mann, a popular song from Kapoor & Sons. The track is currently unavailable on YouTube in India, with the platform stating: “Video unavailable. The uploader has not made this video available in your country.” Sony Music India, which distributed the track, has made no official statement so far. Actor Harshvardhan Rane took to Instagram to cheekily comment on the development regarding Sanam Teri Kasam, quipping, “Now they will say that my PR team got this done! No, it’s again common sense I assume, weeding is being exercised.”
This digital sanitisation comes in the wake of India’s strong retaliatory measures following the recent Pahalgam terrorist attack. Operation Sindoor, the military response, was accompanied by an informal cultural clampdown—reportedly including a ban on Pakistani content across Indian OTT and streaming platforms. While the films themselves remain unchanged, the altered music visuals are an unmistakable signal of the wider political climate bleeding into the entertainment world. It’s not the first time art has borne the brunt of politics—but for fans of cross-border cinema, this erasure hits differently.