‘Akshay Kumar never took advantage of Priyanka Chopra or me’, says Lara Dutta: ‘He saw two young girls with stars in their eyes’

Talkinga bout Akshay’s guidance for her and Priyanka, Lara said, “Both Priyanka and I were coming in right at the same time. He saw two young girls coming in with stars in their eyes and zero guidance and direction. And he never took advantage of that. Today, I think he is such an incredibly street-smart person. He knows the business like the back of his hand, he knows what works. So, in that sense, I had a really strong springboard to take off from.”

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Andaaz producer Suneel Darshan has previously suggested that in the years after this film, Akshay and Priyanka were in a relationship. Akshay was already married to Twinkle Khanna at this time. He said that he had to drop Akshay from his film Barsaat as Twinkle had objected to him working with Priyanka.

He told Bollywood Hungama in an earlier chat that he dropped Akshay after they had already shot a song for Barsaat. He said, “I had also got to know of the other issues that had come up between him and his wife. She had issues with Priyanka, I was told… I feel the profession has its own hazards. Sometimes, the proximity, sometimes the individual’s own lifestyles, all these things come in the way and the media blows it out of proportion, without realising how much loss a filmmaker could suffer because of…”

Priyanka Chopra is now married to Nick Jonas and they are parents to daughter Malti Marie Chopra. Akshay and Twinkle have been married for 25 years. Akshay and Priyanka worked together in Mujhse Shaadi Karogi, Aitraaz, Waqt and a few other films.