Akshay Kumar-Priyanka Chopra’s relationship soured; I cut him from my film, says Suneel Darshan: ‘His mistake, why should she suffer?’

Director Suneel Darshan opens up about actors Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar's on-screen chemistry and how it spilled over in their personal lives.

Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra were once believed to be romantically linked. (Photo: Express Archive)

Bollywood has hundreds of stories about alleged affairs, secret relationships and behind the scene altercations. One of the most well known one involves actors Priyanka Chopra and Akshay Kumar. The two exuded chemistry with each other on the screen, which led people to believe that something was going on in real-life as well. Producer Suneel Darshan recently talked about the same in an interview, and shared a story of a time when he had to choose between the two stars.

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The producer was asked about his relationship with Priyanka and Akshay, and what actually occurred all those years ago. Recalling the time when the actors had no issue working with each other, Suneel said, “They were doing well and they were quite comfortable with each other. They did films like Aitraaz together, which actually Priyanka didn’t want to do. She came to me and said that she has been given the role of the vamp. I checked out the script and realised that she has the most important role in the film. I called her back to my office and told her to immediately sign the film.”

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He continued the story and mentioned that things went really sour on the sets of the film Barsaat (2005), a film that was originally planned with Akshay in the lead role. “Her (Priyanka) career was going forward and I was making Barsaat with Akshay, which also had Priyanka and Katrina Kaif in it. So we started the film and we had shot the title track with Akshay and Priyanka. A lot of things then transpired behind the scenes, unfortunate things, and at one point I realised that I wouldn’t be able to do this movie with the both of them; I had to choose.

Darshan added, “Waqt waqt ki baat hoti hai (Things change with time). Whatever happened back then, my argument was simple, if you have made a mistake, then why should the female star suffer for it? I said I’ll go with Priyanka, and it was very heartbreaking for me. I had shot so much of the film already, and I had scrap all of that. Then I got a call from a friend, who suggested my Bobby Deol. His career wasn’t going very well at that point, and I had even put it in contract that Bobby couldn’t work for anyone else before finishing my shoot.”

Ultimately, Katrina also left the project and Bipasha Basu was cast in her place. After the supposed ‘falling out’, Akshay and Priyanka never worked together. Previously they had worked opposite each other in films like David Dhawan’s Mujhse Shaadi Karogi (2004), Vipul Shah’s Waqt Race Against Time (2005), Abbas-Mustan’s Aitraaz (2004), and Raj Kanwar’s Andaaz (2003).

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