It was Priyanka Chopra Jonas who initially showed a keen interest in being part of “Bharat,” according to superstar Salman Khan who said that her last-minute exit from the film was “embarrassing”.
Priyanka had been approached for the movie before Katrina Kaif bagged Bharat, but at the last minute, the actor changed her mind. Now that filming is over and ready for release, does Salman believe that she might have been the wrong choice?
“No, not a wrong choice. But initially, Priyanka was very keen to do Bharat. Ali (director Ali Abbas Zafar) and we all thought it was Katrina Kaif’s film. But Katrina and I did Tiger Zinda Hai just before that and Ali said that we need a girl who is Hindustani,” – Pinkvilla quoted Salman Khan
Salman did not take a dig at Priyanka for the first time to leave the project. When the song ‘ Zinda ‘ was launched recently, while Katrina described how it worked with director Ali Abbas Zafar, Salman had chimed in to add “Thank you Priyanka”
“I tried telling him, ‘Why can’t she (Katrina) pull off this role? She has been living in India for the last 20 years.’ But then Ali said, ‘Priyanka ka phone aaya tha… (we got a call from Priyanka)’ and it is also true that Priyanka and my sister Arpita Khan are good friends.
“After all this, the ‘Nick story’ happened, the embarrassing thing happened and she chose to get married. Look, she did the right thing. She did what she wanted, and Katrina got what she deserved. She (Priyanka) informed us five days before the schedule was supposed to start… she must have thought that in this way I would get upset with her and will never work with her.” – Salman Khan
“She spoke to me saying, ‘Nick (American actor-singer Nick Jonas) has proposed to me and I want to get married, so there will be some date issues’. I said, ‘Sure, get married, we can adjust those two, three days. Then she said that she does not want to do the film.” – Salman continued
Katrina Kaif, who later said she was Atul Agnihotri’s first choice for Kumud’s role in Bharat, eventually took on the role of Chopra.
