One of these things has a much greater effect on my life than the other. Totally throws my Bharat plans for a loop, and probably throws everyone’s Bharat plans for a loop. Including the Bharat team.
Ali Abbas Zafar broke the news, sort of:
My favorite part of that tweet is the replies. I scrolled through the first twenty, and no one cares about PC. The focus was on who to replace her, with Katrina immediately the forerunner. To be fair, this is people who follow Ali Abbas Zafar the director, so presumably interested in his films, not just celebrity gossip. But still! The whole tweet is about PC, and everyone just skipped past that and jumped right to recasting.
People magazine, the reliable boring gossip source in America, confirmed through “sources” after seeing this tweet that there was an engagement. Two things that are repeated everywhere, Nick shut down a New York Tiffany’s to find the ring, and he proposed on her birthday (link here).
The engagement is one thing, and I am sure we will all have many many thoughts, but dropping out of Bharat is a whole different story!!!!
As I’ve said before, I prefer BollywoodHungama to any other source partly because it is so leak-friendly. If you want to get a story out there without your name attached to it, BH will print it. And the result is, there were two competing versions of this story posted within an hour of each other.
The second is the leak from the Bharat/Salman team. This “source” says (link here):
“This is madness. Considering, it was Priyanka Chopra who was keen to be in the film. She approached Salman and his director Ali Abbas Zafar at a time when they had almost finalized Katrina Kaif. Priyanka told them she wanted to come back to Bollywood. Now, when Bharat has gone on the floors she has second thoughts?”
“The director, who is a close friend of Priyanka, doesn’t want any ugly controversy about Priyanka’s exit. So he’s making it sound like an amicable parting, which it is not. Salman is hardly going to be pacified by the marriage alibi. Considering, it was she (Priyanka) who wanted to be part of the project. And, now she’s had second thoughts because of marriage? Nonsense! If she was getting married, she’d have planned it for after shooting for Bharat. This is not small film and opting out of it more or less seals her plans for a Bollywood comeback.”
And this is right after the first BH post, with no “sources”, that had a much happier spin on things (link here):
PC made no bones about hiding her relationship with Nick and even got him to India to meet all her close friends and family. The two are inseparable and PC too has bonded effortlessly with his family back in the States. It is therefore not surprising if she wants to take this relationship to the next level. We wish the lovebirds all the best.
Setting aside the engagement itself, opting out of Bharat is….odd. The fact is, it is her big come back movie. And it is a very big deal that she landed the role. And all logic says that someone else was probably the first choice, Salman likes to work with familiar actresses and he hadn’t worked with PC in years. Not that it was crazy to choose her, Salman’s last few films have been struggling, makes sense to try a big name combination and get some publicity and so on. But it is also obviously something PC must have wanted. Her name wouldn’t even come up unless she put it forward, she’s been off in America doing American things, there is no reason to think of her unless she asks to be considered.
For her career, and also just for common decency, it makes sense to finish the movie. Priyanka has been announced for months, filming is started, all the publicity and everything else is planned around her, not to mention now they have to find some actress available at the last minute to fill in. And, while mostly all publicity is good publicity, this isn’t great publicity. Kind of makes the film look like a loser to have someone dump it. And just for an engagement? For comparison, Asin put off getting married for two years because she felt she had a commitment to finish and finish promoting her final movie. As soon as it came out, she got married. But her work commitments came first. I’m not asking for Priyanka to wait 2 years, but couldn’t she manage to be engaged and also finish 4 months of shooting (or whatever it is)?
(Wedding looks spectacular. So she also managed to plan this whole thing, while finishing filming and promotion commitments)
And there is the obvious comparison, Aish dropping out of Heroine last minute when she was pregnant. Which was also a bit of a to-do. Not that she got pregnant, of course an actress can get pregnant. But that she didn’t give her director warning and help him plan. There was a mad scramble to find a replacement and it was a big thing. And pregnancy is something that is both somewhat out of your control, and involves actual physical changes that make you unable to do everything you could before. But just an engagement? Can’t you choose when to announce it and what to do about it? And can’t you do your work just like before even with the extra weight of a ring on your finger?
There could be a bunch of things going on here just with the Bharat announcement and I don’t know what it is:
- The film is a disaster and Priyanka was looking for an excuse to get out of it and let something else be her come back.
- With the engagement to Nick, she is now serious again about American celebrity, focusing there, and doesn’t care about India any more
- Priyanka just couldn’t hack it, didn’t have the ability to deal with Indian film demands after years doing things Hollywood style (easier schedules, air conditioned studios, less demanding stars, and so on), and chose this way to get out of it.
And there is also this possibility, which I find unlikely based on what was leaked to BH:
4. The Bharat team hated her and fired her but is announcing her departure in a way that saves face for all involved.
dontcallitbollywood 
If I may be completely frivolous : I’m finding it hard to believe she is really engaged to a puppy like that. I am one of the people who DO NOT believe she had an affair with Shah Rukh, but I do believe she had a thing for him and fanned it for publicity. HOW on earth do you go from a man to a puppy? So I’m going with your last theory.
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Oh yeah, the engagement itself seems very hard to believe. Only 2 months of dating, massive age difference and background difference and everything else, and also this big big fuss over an engagement which makes me think they are never getting married and are making the engagement into the biggest story possible because it is the end of the line for this fake romance.
But, I could be wrong.
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I think her visit to India was some sort of sick and desperate last-ditch PR attempt by an aging and only moderately talented actress either to win (or win back) Shah Rukh and force him to make a move by making him jealous~ or at the very least to destroy his marriage. Either way, it was a massive failure~in fact it actually seemed to have improved his relationship with Gauri. So, to save face, The Pigs had no option but to get engaged to this poor tiny boy. I’m sorry but she looks like a transvestite whenever she’s with him because she’s so obviously the man in the relationship and together they look quite comical as she leads him around by the hand. I think India is well rid of her. The US has become quite used to trash and so she will just be absorbed into the Kartrashian culture of ‘Why is this person famous again?’ And, for the record, I don’t think Shah Rukh had an affair with her. She is simply a user.
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“User” in the feminine meaning was what I thought the moment she gushed about ShahRukh through a video in – I think it was – an award show. Then she repeated it in Karan’s show…I truly believe that she was in love with ShahRukh (maybe she still is) but it is/was a demanding one, not an unconditional one…I still have compassion for her but I think that she is less intelligent than she wants to make believe.
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Ah, big engagement rumours, graceful out of film, engagement sadly ends… makes sense. And happily for Shah fans like me pretty much shows that she will manipulate any relationship to her own advantage not really caring how the man in question might feel.
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I think she is pregnant. Because leaving a big project just because you are engaged has no sense at all.
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But then, why would you have Nick Jonas’ baby? I just look at him and have such a strong feeling of “uch”, I can’t imagine anyone wanting that.
(that’s a really mean thing to say, but I feel like the chances of Nick happening upon a comment about him on an Indian film blog are fairly low so I won’t hurt his feelings)
On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 8:11 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Who says it’s Nick’s baby? Or that they had sex to have the baby? There’s alllll kinds of possibilities here.
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And millions of Shahrukh fans around the world sigh in resignation as we see the inevitable rumors that it is Shahrukh’s baby, encouraged by subtle anonymous leaks from “sources close to PC”.
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Ugh. I’m hoping we will be spared. I think she has gone whole hog with this Jonas thing. I was expecting her to spread blind items and gossip articles after both attended the Ambani engagement. Earlier, she would have never missed a single opportunity but this time there were crickets. Nothing came out at all when there was a ripe opportunity to make things up about two old lovers meeting and SRK yearning for his PC who has now done so much better than him with 25 year old Nick. lmao
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Shahrukh’s been laying low lately, unrelated to PC (I think), just choosing to focus on work and keep out of the public eye. So maybe he isn’t as tempting a shortcut any more, she can try to bring stuff up but it won’t do her much good if there are no Shahrukh stories she can latch on to and ride.
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She is NOT having Nick Jonas’s Child. No way.
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How does someone who was publicly single for 6-7 years and fanning flames of a supposed secret affair suddenly go all around town flaunting a relationship with a 25 year old kid and get engaged in two months? That also 2 months where they have mostly been apart and in different countries! I don’t believe a single thing about this Jonas relationship. Why would an engagement involve leaving a film anyway?
Since she walked out of a Salman film risking a lot of BW relationships when there is already another powerful camp that hates her already, I’m guessing she is officially moving her interests to the US. The Jonas relationship, fake or not, has given her the publicity she wants and turned her into a tabloid star. The visibility would at least open her up for roles in HW though it is no guarantee if she can’t impress at auditions. But nowadays, does acting even matter? Fame itself can be the end goal in today’s Kardashian culture. She can release make-up and clothing lines, publish a book, put out a phone app and turn her public feminism into a marketable commodity. There’s always the possibility of working her way up the dating ladder too. A public relationship, engagement, maybe even wedding, divorce, strong single woman/mother, dating someone higher up the ladder, etc. and the circle can continue. I think she has bought in completely into the HW style of celebrity.
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Yeah, it does feel a little bit like she was keeping her options open all along. If she couldn’t find a way to make a second innings in America, she wanted a soft landing in India and lined up a big big come back. But now that her American fame has worked out, she is dumping the India back-up plan.
Weird connection, but it feels kind of like Rajkummar’s character in Queen? Really pursued and really wanted Kangana, and then decided he could get something better overseas and dumped her at the last possible minute with the greatest possible emotional distress. And now poor Kangana/Bharat will have to go on a quest of self-discovery and pick themselves up somehow and start over.
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But she has another BW movie that she didn’t walk out of. She’s been posting pics of the script and the producers even confirmed it again while this Bharat drama was going on. She’s doing an arty type film with Farhan Akhtar and Zaira Wasim.
I’m guessing Bharat is a major dud or lots of last minute changes were being made and her role wasn’t very significant like she expected. The movie honestly sounds like a disaster and with her supposed Hollywood fame, she probably no longer cares about upsetting Salman by walking out. She doesn’t need him and it’s not like she was going to get a lot of films with him after Bharat anyway. It would have mostly just been a one-off so it hardly matters. I think she just used the engagement as an excuse to soothe egos and kill two birds with one stone.
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Which would just make me more angry if I were the Bharat producer. Yes, obviously, Bharat is a much greater commitment. But if you are dropping everything for your engagement, then you really should be dropping EVERYTHING, not just the stuff you don’t really want to do.
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I think that’s why Ali Abbas Zafar tweeted slyly about her marriage/engagement to make sure to put it out there that the problem is not with the movie or role. Otherwise, why would an outsider put out info about someone else’s personal life? It’s very tacky to do! Shouldn’t that kind of announcement be left up to the actual couple? I don’t think they are happy at all even though they are putting on a nice face.
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Yeah, it was WEIRD. Or maybe just poor planning. The Bharat team HAVE to start moving around looking for a replacement, like, yesterday. If PC wanted to release the news at her own pace, then she should have gotten out of the film long ago when it would be less urgent for them. They have no choice now but to make a public announcement, otherwise any actress they approach wouldn’t trust that PC was really out and would be reluctant to commit.
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Of course if you’re the producer of Bharat and you’ve seen the fate of the last few Salman films, you might just be glad the big HW returned dollar commanding female lead is out and you can downsize the budget to something a little more recoverable in the opening weekend alone.
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Good point! Ooo, maybe this is just a straight up contract dispute? Either they couldn’t pay her as much as promised and she was out, or she asked for more money and they turned it down and she chose to leave? Or just a general “we don’t have the budget any more, let’s work together to come up with a cover story”?
On Sun, Jul 29, 2018 at 11:27 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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This is a PR cover up for sure and I’m sure it was cleared with all their people
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(Ooh there’s a film planned with Farhan and Zaira? Squee!)
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Directed by the woman who made Margarita with a Straw.
Also, always, FARHAN! DON 3!
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Not gonna lie, I am absolutely delighted by this news because now I can read about Bolly-related gossip here AND on my Hollywood blogs! And I get to sound super knowledgeable when I fill people in on Priyanka’s backstory and rumored affair with Shahrukh. This is win all around for me, lol
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I am mostly delighted because I was never really able to wrap my head around the idea of PC being welcomed back into the fold so easily (and so easily being able to give up her Hollywood fame and power). And, yay! I was right! It’s not gonna happen.
Watch out on filling in people, every time I try to explain PC’s backstory I tend to get backlash of being anti-feminist and stuff. But then, I am probably more emotionally involved than you and unable to hide my opinions.
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Interesting! Nope, Americans are always fascinated when I fill them in and thank me for the info. A lot of people in the US still don’t understand how big a star Priyanka was in India.
She must have a personality disorder or is just toxic af to have so thoroughly burned her bridges back home. And to hook her wagon to NICK JONAS seems…unwise.
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My sister’s incredibly petty and small and wrong thought: “Green card”
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I mean, your sister is not wrong, probably.
This was the lead story on my Hollywood blog and I got to drop truth bombs and people are appalled by her story. I feel so knowledgeable this morning! lol
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In a completely different way and on a completely different level, it feels like Osho. The Wild Wild Country doc was so focused on the Oregon years and seemed to have no sense that similar things had been happening back in India and that’s why they left. And at the same time, if I read Indian sources, they are very aware of what happened in India but seem to have little sense of Oregon.
I guess this just means that Oceans are very very large, and you can manage to hide a lot of stuff as you travel over them.
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Not wrong at all. Plus, if there’s a baby, things smoothen out for her further. Even if she does TV or minor film roles, she gets to be invited to A list events thanks to Nick who will most probably transition into a HW career like JT did. Plus, at 35, she’s too old for BW, but that’s the age most HW actresses are getting their big break. All she needs is an artsy indie film that gets her a few awards and nominations and she’s set.
Nick looks like he’s trying to be the grown up responsible man around her which makes me think ‘baby’!!
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Yeah, I don’t know if Nick is ever really going to make “A list”. He’s not really on that track right now, Priyanka might be closer than him. But he would be a great springboard to a reality show! Especially if they have a baby.
On Sun, Jul 29, 2018 at 11:31 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Well not the regular Hollywood A list. More like “he’s in the news right now and he’s still popular so let’s invite him” kind of A list.
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You know, I tend to think she’s gotten so bold simply because she hasn’t faced any consequences for her behavior in BW. She had an affair with Akshay (or at least made Twinkle angry) and he stopped working with her but it didn’t make a difference to her career. She planted rumors about SRK for years but was able to get away with it. Apart from ignoring her, there really wasn’t much he could do or else it would have ended up like the Hrithik-Kangana situation for him. This isn’t even the first time she walked out of a Salman movie. She did this before with Mr and Mrs Khanna and that’s why Salman avoided her for years. She had a public fight with Karan Johar after planting articles but that turned out okay too since her HW fame meant he would still have to invite her to things like Koffee with Karan. She’s learned that she can get away with all this and now with a white guy on her arm, she feels invincible since desis go crazy at even the slightest bit of international attention.
Kangana has also learned from this and constantly burns bridges and talks nonsense about everyone but it helps her look like a “strong woman” and there is an audience for this.
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Oh right! I remember the fuss about Mr and Mrs Khanna now.
I suppose it depends on what you think of as “Consequences”. It looks like her career has more or less not been affected, but it could be a lonely life. Not that we really know anything about it, but if this were someone I knew in real life, I would watch her climb the ladder and also think about whether she has any friends she can call up at 3am just to talk.
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I have more sympathy for Kangana because I think she may have a real mental illness (I’m guessing she’s bipolar). But Priyanka is just a toxic person. Also, Kangana is way more talented in my opinion. Not that talent should buy you endless permission to behave poorly but it biases me nonetheless, I admit it.
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From Married Men to literally a child Lol PC is crazy
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I believe that love can be found where you least expect it so Priyanka-Nick doesn’t surprise me. I wish them all the best.
I also don’t think PC will walk out of a movie for her wedding. Its not like she is marrying into royalty where she has to follow certain rules.
My theory: She is either pregnant or she hated Bharat so much that she used her engagement to get out of it!!!
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If she’s pregnant before marriage, this is the worst cover-up EVER. If the wedding is fast and the baby is born within a year, everyone will know anyway.
If she were a Hollywood person, they would jsut announce the pregnancy and the engagement together. But I’m guessing that still wouldn’t fly with the Indian press. Although Konkona did it, but then she’s Konkona, it’s a whole different thing.
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I’m sorry but Bharat is sounding like Race 2 redux. They’re adding people (actresses) every day and PC probably understood it wasn’t going to be the big comeback movie she thought it was. Using this whole Nick thing as a cover up maybe. But from Ali’s tweet, def a big announcement on the way!
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Yep, Bharat is sounding pretty horrible. But if PC was serious about rebuilding a career, it wouldn’t be the worst thing. Show that she is willing to buckle down and work on even a bad movie, get in good with Salman and his crowd, make friends and connections with a variety of new talents who she wouldn’t have known from back when she was starting out. Like what Bobby was able to do with Race 3, terrible movie but great networking opportunity and resume builder. But it would be a lot of work, she would need to do that film plus line up other better films for after it was over, plus prove herself the nicest hardest working best person on set so people would spread good word of mouth about her,
On the other hand, if she wanted to have a movie that she could make and keep her foot in India and in America, then this sounds like way way too much work for not much immediate pay off. And maybe that’s what she was looking for, thinking she could just waltz in and do this big name movie and be done. If so, she was pretty foolish, Salman’s track record is established as uneven films and difficult shoots.
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I don’t even understand why they cast Priyanka in the movie in the first place. Salman already had a bad experience with her walking out of Mr. and Mrs. Khanna and she doesn’t have a good reputation with a lot of people like SRK, Karan Johar, Akshay, etc. I was shocked when I heard she was going to be in it. Were they that enamored with her supposed HW fame? Did they think her presence was going to help them in Western markets? It doesn’t make a lot of sense for a big movie to get an actress who has had no BW work for years and isn’t even well liked. Maybe Salman has mellowed after the thrashing that Race 3 and Tubelight received and thought she could help get some audience? Everything about this movie sounds bizarre. Or maybe top actresses (besides Katrina) aren’t really interested in doing Salman movies. Deepika has never shown the slightest inclination, Anushka talked about being uncomfortable around him and unfollowed her right after Sultan. Her dislike was quite visible. Kangana declined Sultan and wouldn’t be interested. Maybe PC seemed like a good compromise – a big HW name (smirk) who can act and is miles above the Daisy Shah and Jaqueline types he usually works with. He can’t keep repeating Katrina in every movie.
It will be interested to see who they manage to land now. Probably Katrina or Kareena.
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sorry about the typos; can’t edit.
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Did Priyanka walk out of Main aur Mrs Khanna or did she reject it because it had Sohail Khan? I had read the latter. And that’s what put Salman off – that she rejected Sohail Khan!
Anyways, I am not buying this Nick-Priyanka marriage thing and no reason why she can’t shoot this movie even if she does get married. But Priyanka should’ve known what she’s signing up for – its a Salman Khan home production so nothing is set in stone, and they’re going to be adding people from his talent agency as and when they please. Don’t think Priyanka will have much going on in India though, don’t see her coming back in Don either.
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Yeah, I can see all kinds of reasons for her to drop out, but then those are the same reasons not to sign it in the first place. If you make the commitment, keep it, and suck it up and shoot the thing for 5 months and then move on with your life.
On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 12:48 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yeah, I think you answered your own question, you figured it out. And that matches the leaks from BH. It sounds like she lobbied for the part, and her name along with the difficulty in finding another big name actress willing to take it made them willing to make a deal. Compromise on both sides I am sure, the team promised her a solid role and loads of publicity, she promised them she wouldn’t drop out last minute or complain about Salman’s difficult working style.
But now she has dropped out last minute, so I guess she didn’t want it that much anyway.
To be fair to Salman, this is a hard film to cast even if he were a perfect professional saint on set. No matter what you will be in the shadow of Salman, lots of make-up work and long filming schedules, and you are probably going to end up playing a mother which is still a little bit toxic. All the Khans are struggling with who to work with, the younger stars are just too young, the older stars are too busy with their own lives, so the ones in the middle (Anushka, Dips, Katrina, Kareena) are in demand. And know they are in demand and can afford to turn down a film that doesn’t look like it will be the best for their career.
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Today I saw a quote from a Rajkummar interview where he cites Aamir as someone who is redefining the leading man because he was willing to play a middle aged father in Dangal. Which really says something about the demands put on male stars in Bollywood, even on the level of the Khans.
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And about the cognitive dissonance we all manage to live with between stars public masks and professional roles. I had that myself, when I watched Dangal, I was thinking “what an amazing transformation! I actually believe Aamir as a middle-aged father to a grown daughter!” And then I remembered “wait, he IS a middle-aged father to a grown daughter!!!! It’s the other performances that are the transformations, this is the first real one”. And it’s not like Ira is a secret or anything, we all know when she was born, how old she is now, we see Aamir being dopey Dad going around with her. And yet we still switch to expecting him onscreen to always be young and suave and so on.
On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 1:16 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Ok I sense that a lot of people here don’t like Priyanka, and I’m neutral towards her but I’m just glad that Salman cannot control everyone. I HATE Salman as much as people here hate Priyanka, and I’m glad that she at least has this much power. And as someone mentioned, Deepika has never showed any interest, and the fact that Anushka was never comfortable could be seen in Sultan.
That leaves Kareena or Katrina. Kareena loves the big commercial movies where all she has to do is show up and get paid. And this movie doesn’t really require anyone with actual acting skills, considering they have cast Disha Patani as well. So a cakewalk for Katrina, who I think is most likely to bag the role. U know I might have actually watching it because it would be PC’s Hindi film after 2 years but now, no way.
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The one thing about Sultan, and I think maybe all of Salman’s hits recently, is that they were Yash Raj films. So Salman couldn’t just run wild. If you want someone who has power over him, that would be Aditya Chopra and Yash Raj. Not total power, he still got to handpick his director and co-star, but they released on time and on budget and with high quality performances and competent directing and all of that stuff. I am sure that is why Anushka agreed to do Sultan, both because of her existing relationship with Yash Raj and because she knew she wouldn’t just be under the control of Salman’s whims. But she certainly isn’t going to work with him in other circumstances.
From the little I am seeing about Bharat, it looks like a combination of a hard and easy shoot. Easy because (as almost always in a Salman film) the heroine won’t have much to do. But hard because there will be a lot of old age make-up and sitting around and waiting for the rest of the cast to be ready and so on and so forth. So you have to be an actress who is endlessly patient, but not necessarily that talented. So yeah, Katrina. She seems like a perfect choice.
On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 12:47 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Kareena might be willing too. She has never minded doing flowerpot roles and is amongst the few who gets along well with Salman. She’s happy doing small roles in big movies where she doesn’t have to work much and gets a good paycheck without a lot of stress. Female-led movies are much harder because all the responsibility is on her shoulders including the publicity portions. With Salman, she would not need to do much and it would not affect her even if the movie flopped.
However, her name has also been up for Salute with SRK so she may prefer that one. It would also be a small role but at least it would not be subject to the leading man’s whims and fancies.
There are always smaller name actresses like Bhumi Pednekar available but I think they would want a big name to match up to Priyanka at least so they don’t look like losers who had to settle for less.
Deepika is jobless with a free schedule but would she be willing? I think even Anushka is free. She’s finished her portion of Zero and I think even Sui Dhaaga is complete.
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Dips hasn’t worked in a while, has she? Padmavat took an eternity, what with her also taking the lead in the promotions, so she certainly earned a vacation. But she had better sign something soon if she wants to stay relevant. Or, maybe her engagement rumors are true.
For Kareena, agree with everything. She is smart in picking roles that will keep her relevant without too much time commitment. And she and Salman have a great relationship, he might even show up to work on time for her. But on the other hand, she is one where the presumed failure of Bharat wouldn’t be worth the connections. She has the connections, she is still a top star, and she isn’t trying to restart her career or anything (she’s in a super strong position coming off of Veere). So why bother with this film that looks like it won’t be very successful commercially or critically? Better to wait for a project with a stronger story and director and production house.
And for the smaller actresses, that is another reason I would be mad at Priyanka if I were trying to coordinate Bharat. If you had to go with someone like Bhumi, better to do it from the start, spin it as “we wanted a fresh face for the role, new perspective” etc. etc. Now their options are limited to only big names, or else admitting that they couldn’t get another big name.
It’s the same problem Salman just had with Loveratri, they made the mistake of floating rumors about all these bigger names opposite his brother-in-law and then they all said no and he ended up having to announce a “discovery”
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Well apparently Deepika and Ranveer are getting married in November, so I don’t think she would be available. I think Katrina is going to get this, because of her relationship with Salman and Ali Abbas Zafar. But wouldn’t that be just boring? At least with Priyanka there would be a novelty factor of her working with Salman after 10 years and her coming back to Bollywood.
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Yeah, except I was really dreading her and Salman together, I just don’t get a “long time couple” vibe from them, like you would need for this kind of film. Spicy rom-com like Salaam-E-Ishq, perfect. Decade spanning love story, not so much. Kat is a much better fit. Rani or Preity or Karisma would be even better, but it’s probably too much to hope for an age appropriate pairing.
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I would love Rani or Preity too, but we all know it’s probably never going to happen again.
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I completely agree with you people seem to hate on PC but forget that this is a tough industry for women to be in where they are easily replacable and extreme sexism exist, I dont blame her for pulling all these publicity stunts. Then you have people like Salman with no acting skills still get to play the hero even in their 50s smh
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Filmfare with the scoop! https://www.filmfare.com/news/bollywood/the-real-truth-behind-priyanka-chopras-dramatic-exit-from-bharat-29523-1.html
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This all seems reasonable. The casting announcements have been coming fast and furious, and seemingly unexpected since they were so last minute compared to PC’s casting. Not to mention that signing a film with Salman coming off of Tiger Zinda Hai is a whole different thing than signing a film with Salman coming off of Race 3. Tying her leaving to the engagement would save face for the film and Salman.
Still a little blurry on why if Kat was eager to do the film and Salman was happy to have her, PC was cast in the first place. I guess just a thought that they have been seen together too much and Salman should try a new pairing? Or PC lobbied for the film and put her name forward?
And it also seems a wee bit unusual to explain this with an engagement instead of just the usual “Scheduling issues”. Not unheard of, but just slightly odd, right?
Also, really interesting that PC’s team leaked more info to People, and Salman’s team leaked more info to FilmFare, the People of India. Or maybe they are both PC leaks? Anyway, that the engagement news went to the American press and the Bharat news went to the Indian.
On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 2:22 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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PC plays the publicity game very very well. When she came back to India last week, she was flaunting a ring on her finger and making it obvious to the cameras too at the airport. The Indian media still didn’t make any comment on it but I think she wanted to start the buzz right then and there. Engagement articles have been coming out since last month anyway, even strange stuff like how they’ve exchanged promise rings and the like.
Then Demi Lovato overdosed and they probably had to put the kibosh on the engagement publicity plan. Jonas is apparently her best friend (problematic because they had unfollowed each other on social media) and he was getting quite a bit of flak for being a bad friend and not looking out for her. Both PC and Nick tweeted in her “support.”
The whole relationship is just plain bizarre. Jonas was linked to several girls this year alone and there were kissing pics leaked in late March. After that there were many other reports of other women and then suddenly bam, Priyanka two months ago. Within days, they started spreading engagement stories, promise rings exchanged, and all sorts of crazy stuff. Now they’re putting out stories of how Nick closed down a Tiffany’s store to let her pick a ring (come on, how cheesy and movie-like is this?). It looks extremely, extremely fake.
I think their engagement publicity plan worked out well as an excuse for Bharat. They were going to do that PR anyway but now it can be used to save her from Bharat too. It turned out to be a movie and role that didn’t look good so she peaced out.
As for Kat, I don’t think she has any huge aspirations. She just wants to continue working and appearing in big movies. That’s enough for her and she knows she’s not a great actress so it’s fine.
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Kat does seem to have one aspiration, she keeps trying to make her sister Isabelle a thing. Which is fine and understandable and all of that, but also gives Kat a bit of an impetus to stay in good with the movers and shakers, if she wants them to help her sister. Unlike PC, who is just managing her own career, I don’t get the impression that she is arranging things for the future for Parineeti for instance.
I think you could be right about the timeline, it seems like they both entered the relationship planning to get engaged. Either for publicity or just because they were at that time in their lives. It doesn’t read like a sudden falling in love, it reads like the engagement was the end game always.
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And the sniping begins:
https://twitter.com/pinkvilla/status/1022967607039807488
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Interesting. I wonder if he is just going off on his own, or if this is the start of a campaign? Something to look forward to over the next few weeks!
On Fri, Jul 27, 2018 at 5:14 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Go PC Go! If getting engaged or having a baby is what it takes to get out of a Salman film, so be it.I just wish some actress does a ‘Priyanka’ & backs out of an SRK film too-lovely payback for dropping Ash unceremoniously from Chalte Chalte for a lame reason & all the times when actresses have been short changed.
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I feel like Shahrukh has lost an actress last minute but I can’t remember when. I know the Ra.One filming got messed up by Kajol’s pregnancy, because Kareena had to prioritize We Are Family. But I am sure there is another incident I am forgetting.
Although, again, usually these things happen much earlier in the process, not 2 DAYS BEFORE FILMING!!!!!
On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 3:13 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Didn’t Salman create the ruckus with Ash on the sets of Chalte Chalte? So they were well into shooting. Anyways wdnt Katrina, Sonakshi, Jacqueline etc drop everything on one call from Salman & fill in nicely? Now maybe the rare chance for the Salman loyalists to help him find a heroine & soothe his bruised ego… in Salman’s tone-aap mere piche, main aap ke piche…too much fun…🤣
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Im hoping for Sonakshi, now that Akshat reminded me of her. Comfortable with Salman, good “married” vibe, and would look great with old age make up.
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50+ comments in 12 hours (and I’m sure tenfold views) is why gossip sites make so much more money than sites like yours and BollywoodJournalist that do more film industry history and analysis. Thank you for continuing with your Hindi 101, film reviews, box office assessment, and other industry analysis posts, and I hope you don’t become yet another gossip site for lack of readership 😦
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From an analysis perspective, the really unusual part here is that AAZ announced the engagement (or hinted at it), rather than either PC or Nick announcing themselves. Their instagrams still have no pics of the othe This is a highly unusual move, and perhaps holds the key to motive. If they wanted to keep the engagement private, which they have done since July 18 so over a week already, then why announce it at all, and certainly why allow a third party to announce it? And if they wanted to make it public, then again, why allow a third party to announce?
Compare this to recent American millennial celebrity engagements – bieber, grande, kloss – they or their partners announced it themselves on instagram.
Even Indian celebs like virushka, ranitya, sonam announced their engagement themselves, even if they didn’t announce right away. Or look at Deepika and Ranveer – they haven’t announced an engagement, but are they going to have some director or producer announce it for them? My guess is they won’t announce the engagement but like Virushka, Ranitya, John, Preity, will announce the wedding right after it’s occurred.
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Despite PCs numerous alleged and actual liaisons over the years (akshay, srk, shahid, harman, are the ones I recall but there must be others), is this PC’s first engagement? At she 36, that is late for an Indian female celebrity.
Maybe she finally found engagement with adv American because American celebs treat engagement more casually, more like a promise ring or a mark of ownership. American celebs stay engaged for years and oftentime break up after that. Meanwhile the rest of the world treats engagement as demarcating the starting point for wedding preparation.
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Your sister thinks PC needs Nick for a green card? If she doesn’t already have one (from living here as a teen), I’m sure she could get one via the investors route, plunking down ten mill USD into a production company she starts in the usa for example.
I think she would be more into the power couple aspect of this relationship, and maybe Nick has an eye toward media expansion in India and Asia, whether that be his music or more creative behind the scenes stuff.
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On a teasing note, you seem to find the alia – ranbir 25-36 age gap “inappropriate” and express that sentiment in almost every sentence that you mention them. Yet nick – priyanka also have a 25-36 age gap, and not a peep from you? Haha 😀
Btw did you ever mention the Shahid Mira 18-33 age gap at the time of their marriage to be inappropriate? Because of the 3 options, that’s the only one that borders on inappropriate. By contrast, 25 is a full grown adult, they can date or marry whoever they choose.
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The thing about gossip is, it’s hard to control. If there was a story this big every day, I might be tempted, but this kind of thing only comes along once every few months, so I have to write other stuff in between. If only people were constantly getting married and breaking up and so on then my whole life would be different!
Yes!!!! The announcement via director is so WEIRD. It would make me doubt the truth of the story, but then the People magazine leak is straight standard celebrity. Not the personal announcement getting the story over and out there like the other ones have been, but still makes senseif you want to build up to it, have a leak to people, and then more little hints for a few days, and finally a big party revealing the truth, and on and on and on, getting every last ounce from it. Maybe the director announcement was semi-without permission (remember when Amitabh announced Aaradhya when he wasn’t supposed to?) and now they are scrambling to get back on track with the planned leak and slow build?
It’s PC’s first public engagement (of course, who knows what she and Shahid or Harman discussed in private). I saw a thing somewhere saying “oh yes, this makes sense, because it is just like an arranged marriage, meet each other, meet the families, engaged”. Which doesn’t work for me, because it doesn’t fit the arranged engagement template, does it? The Indian celebrities of PC’s level tend to actually date, just like movie stars anywhere else, with maybe a little more family involvement, and then get engaged and then get married after months and months. If it was like an “arranged” thing, then it wouldn’t have this massive age gap and culture gap and everything else. Or maybe that’s just me, but the “you see, in her culture girls have arranged marriages” connection does nothing.
Oh, you missed my first post! I didn’t bring the age gap up again here because I wanted to ignore the relationship as much as possible and just focus on the Bharat part of it: https://dontcallitbollywood.com/2018/05/30/wednesday-watching-post-what-are-we-reading-and-thinking-and-watching-this-week-2/
My first reaction was ” very hard to wrap my head around Priyanka Chopra dating one of those little boys.” The age difference ABSOLUTELY bothers me, in the exact same way it bothers me with Ranbir-Alia. The older one is at a point in their life when they are ready to settle down, have already had all kinds of career ups and downs and are at a settled celebrity point, giving interviews about being ready for a family and so on. And the younger one is giving interviews about experimenting and trying new things and figuring themselves out. It’s just not healthy for a couple to be together when they are at such different points in life. If Nick was 24 but already married and divorced with 2 kids and a regular job on a TV show, I would be fine. Similarly, if Alia was like Neetu, already with a long career behind her as a child star and openly talking about just wanting to get married and stop all these life changes, that would be fine too. But it really doesn’t feel like that, you know? Unless everyone is lying terrible (always possible) in every interview ever, PC and Ranbir have way more in common in terms of life stages and so do Nick and Alia. Ooo, now I like htis idea! Alia and Nick, both with famous older siblings, both with careers that started out big and are now really hitting their stride, both with reasonable dating history but no serious marriage-level relationships. And PC and Ranbir, both with big public scandals in their past, both talking about settling down now, and with a long history together already.
And the Shahid-Mira thing totally bothered me too, I just wasn’t blogging back then. My favorite part of the story was one of Mira’s friends, when the reporter hordes descended, responding to a question with “Of course she’s not marrying Shahid Kapoor, he’s, like, old.” Which is such a college student thing to say, but also a reason that they SHOULD NOT have gotten married!!! In real life, I tend to refer to her as his “child-bride”, but I don’t say that on the blog because I am trying to be professional(ish).
On Sat, Jul 28, 2018 at 6:56 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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so sonakshi will come into Bharat ? she desperately wants a film and who better than her mentor salmon ?
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Oooo, I like that idea! Sonakshi has the screen presence to make an impression even in just a “wife” role, and her kind of mature feel onscreen would work really well for a role where she ages up. Heck, she would even look really good with a mature wifely bun and grey hair! YES! This is the one! Salman should cast her.
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