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Urwa Hocane’s portrayal of an unhappy wife in popular ongoing drama, Aap Ki Izzat, has earned phenomenal praise over the past week. But you probably didn’t know that she almost wasn’t Beena.

Saife Hasan, the show’s director, made this disclosure during an interview on Friday.

So, who, if not Hocane, was first considered for the lead role?

“There weren’t many options,” Hasan said, before pointing out that casting the role of Beena was particularly challenging.

The character appears in two different timelines, so the actress had to convincingly play both a mother of children aged 10 to 12 as well as a college girl.

“Not every actor could be offered this role. So, the big names we approached were Saba Qamar, Mahira Khan, and Sarah Khan. There was a time when we decided to cast Beena with two different actors; that’s when Reema’s name came up. We considered casting Reema for the older role,” he added.

In the end, Urwa got the role, the director said.

“Urwa worked very hard. I had no idea that Urwa was such a hard-working girl. She worked with so much determination. She always came up with good ideas. She did a good job,” Hasan said.

On the other hand, Tabish — Beena’s cheating husband in the drama — was always Ahsan Khan.

Considering the phenomenon that Aap Ki Izzat has become, it’s hard to imagine why any actor would turn down a role in the drama. Hasan feels it’s because people didn’t give the script enough time.

“The script is so thick, it’s like two dictionaries. And everyone is quite busy. But whoever read it — like Urwa — did a good thing. Urwa trusted me,” he added.

Casting decisions, Hasan made sure to point out, were mainly made by Momina Duraid, head of the production house behind the show.

Hasan also made several other disclosures during the interview — including the fact that Aap Ki Izzat was almost called Tumhari Beena because he wanted the title to be slightly more ‘romantic’.

He also noted that the show initially had 20 episodes, but by the time writer Umera Ahmed was done with it, it had increased to 22 episodes.

Good news if you’re an Aap Ki Izzat fan — with episode 17 having just aired, you still have five more to enjoy the cast’s stellar performances.