Barsaat, a musical love story with Bobby Deol, Priyanka Chopra, and Bipasha Basu in the key roles, was released in 2005.
Suneel Darshan, known for reviving Akshay Kumar’s career with Jaanwar, directed the picture (1999). He has directed films like Ajay (1996), Ek Rishtaa (2001), Talaash: The Hunt Begins… (2003), Dosti: Friends Forever (2005) and Mere Jeevan Saathi (2006). (2006).
Interestingly, Bobby Deol wasn’t the first choice for Barsaat, it was, in fact, Akshay Kumar who had even shot for some portions of the film including the title track with Priyanka Chopra.
But at the “thirteenth hour”, he stepped out of the picture & was eventually replaced by Bobby Deol.
Sharing the specifics of Akshay’s exit, Suneel tweeted a handful of unseen BTS photographs from the song that he shot with Priyanka & said that the superstar stepped out owing to “family problems” and “domestic issues”.
At the time, there were rumours that Akshay was seeing Priyanka and that his wife Twinkle had forbidden him from working with the actress.
Akshay first refuted these claims, however, Suneel Darshan has now revealed the truth.
He revealed, “Akshay Kumar had a personal challenge. Together with Akshay and Priyanka, we began filming. A song was recorded with them. After that, the movie continued getting pushed back because Akshay needed to resolve his (family’s) issues.
“It was a serious domestic issue for Akshay,” he continued. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have left the movie. Given how I’ve supported him over the years, he couldn’t have let me down. There had to be a really serious provocation. When a director puts so much into a movie, he has every right to demand commitment from his cast. But first, personal issues need to be resolved before thinking about professional allegiances. Nothing about Akshay is my fault. But certainly, first, he insisted that I just sign him as an actor. Then he disappears. Thank God Bobby came to my rescue. I’ll edit the song I recorded in Barsaat with Akshay and utilise it sometime.
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It’s interesting to note that Katrina was originally scheduled to appear before Bipasha, but after Akshay walked out and the movie was delayed, Katrina ran into scheduling conflicts and had to be substituted.
Suneel has now revealed the truth, but in a previous interview, he claimed that Akshay left because of “date confusion.”
Since then, Akshay and Priyanka have not collaborated.
