Breaking his silence for the first time Priyanka Chopra’s abrupt exit from Bharat, Salman Khan has revealed that the Quantico star had called his sister Arpita 1,000 times to act opposite him in a movie.
Speaking to a leading newspaper, the Dabangg actor said, “It must have been very difficult for her to make this decision because she was very keen to work on this project. She (Priyanka) has called up Arpita a thousand times, saying, ‘I want to work with Salman’. She has even called up Ali (Abbas Zafar, director) and told him, ‘See if you can get me something in this film’.”
In July this year, Priyanka had stunned everyone by walking off Bharat. The producer of the film had lashed out at her, calling her behaviour unprofessional. Katrina Kaif was never roped in to replace Priyanka in the Salman Khan’s next big Eid release.
“She (Priyanka) had a reason to do that. It’s just that the project got stuck. Had we known earlier, we could have worked it out better. She was getting engaged and I told her, ‘If you are getting engaged, what’s the need (of exiting the project)?’ Then she said, ‘Shaadi karni hai’ to which I said ‘Toh shaadi kar lo’,” Salman added in the interview.
“Priyanka’s work was for 75-80 days. Shaadi ke liye chaar din ka preparation, aur chaar din ki shaadi, aath din ke andar ho gayi aur phir uske baad honeymoon. So, we said we will work it out. But she was very clear that she didn’t want to be a part of the film,” he added.
The shooting for Bharat has started in Malta, where the Race 3 actor had also invited her mother to join him. The video of Salman taking his mother on a tour around Malta had gone viral after he shared them on his social media pages.