Filmmaker Suneel Darshan, who had a long and successful professional relationship with actor Akshay Kumar in the 90s, recalled how the actor dropped out of his production Barsaat at the eleventh hour, after his wife, Twinkle Khanna, allegedly forbid him to work with Priyanka Chopra. Suneel said that he was left in the lurch after Akshay dropped out of the film, which he proceeded to make with Bobby Deol instead. In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Suneel said that actors shouldn't let their personal lives interfere with work, and that they must be prepared for occupational hazards. He also suggested that Twinkle might have been misinformed, and that she should have probably not taken the situation as 'seriously' as she did. "Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra were a very good pair, very similar in terms of their personal traits," he said, recalling that they had shot a song for Barsaat together and were on the verge of shooting the film when Akshay backed out. "They had amazing chemistry. I thought the song looked beautiful; no vulgarity, no obscenity, very sensuous. Then Priyanka went for a world tour, and when she came back. I don't know what happened in between." He said that Akshay asked to meet him, and that they met up on the sets of his film Waqt, where Akshay told him that he was having some issues with his dates. Suneel continued, "By then, 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." Suneel continued, "Personal issues should never come in the way of creativity. And coming from people who've been in the film industry, they've seen the hazards, they know what happens. Personally, I feel the wife could've been wrongly insinuated, because she herself has been an actress. She's done films with Shah Rukh Khan, with Salman Khan, with Aamir Khan, with Ajay Devgn. If she's done so much work, she should understand that people shouldn't take it so seriously." He said that actors backing out of projects is common in the film industry, but he didn't expect Akshay to back out, especially after having developed the relationship with each other that they did. "I'm not claiming anything from him, I think it's very cheap to claim, but I thought there was a certain sense of responsibility he owed." He said that Priyanka never brought it up with him, and that Akshay was fine with returning to work with him on his next film, Dosti, but that was the end of their professional and personal journey together. Akshay is among the highest-paid actors in the country, despite having experienced a rough patch this year. Priyanka, on the other hand, has successfully established herself in Hollywood.
