Katrina Kaif’s entry in the Salman Khan starrer Bharat came amid major controversy surrounding Priyanka Chopra’s sudden exit from the film. Initial rumours said that it was due to her engagement to Nick Jonas, which was called into question when she immediately started work on Farhan Akhtar’s The Sky is Pink. While many people might’ve suggested that there were ulterior motives behind the casting change, Katrina is only doing it out of love and respect for her close friend and past director, Ali Abbas Zafar.
At the 2018 Vogue Awards, Katrina told the media that her ‘very, very dear’ friend Ali Abbas Zafar had sent her the script, and it was the writing and the character that got her sold on the role. ‘We’ve worked together before in Mere Brother Ki Dulhan and later in Tiger Zinda Hai, and both films were very successful and, more importantly, they were experiences for me which were really wonderful and I really enjoyed both the experiences of working with him.”
Apparently, the two are so close that he even has a cutesy nickname for her. “He calls me goldfish. He contacted me and said ‘Goldfish, I’m gonna send you a script. Just react to it and tell me what you think. And I read the script and I thought it was an absolutely wonderful script.”
When asked about whether she was apprehensive that she was coming onboard on the back of someone else’s exit, she answered “Always, the way that I’ve chosen my films has always been purely based on the script and the characters.”
Bharat, starring Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Disha Patani, Tabu, Sunil Grover and Nora Fatehi, releases in theatres on Eid 2019.
