Mumbai: Actress Deepika Padukone has dropped out of Abbas-Mustan’s thriller Race 2, leaving producer Ramesh Taurani miffed with her.
The action thriller produced under the Tips Films banner, is the sequel to the 2008 hit Race, with the ensemble cast of Anil Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandez and Ameesha Patel.
Taurani claims that the actress backed out of the project after shooting for a week. “I have been a part of the Hindi cinema industry for 25 years. I have never faced a situation like this. Our directors and the other actors are extremely annoyed with her (Deepika). It is very sad,” Taurani said in a statement. The producer says he was the last one to know that Deepika had left the movie.
“It was on January 27 when people kept calling me asking whether Deepika was out of Race 2. I was clueless. I called her and asked her… she simply said she would come to my office by 5 pm with her new manager to work out everything. Later, she said she wouldn’t be able to keep the appointment,” the producer claimed.
When contacted, the 26-year-old actress said she did not want to comment on the topic. However a source close to her said that constant delays in the shooting prompted her to quit the film.
“When the first delay happened she tried and adjusted the shoot for two days but the shooting was delayed again. She is unable to accommodate her dates now. Deepika has conveyed her apologies to Ramesh Taurani. She had liked the script but unfortunately she is unable to juggle her dates any more,” the source said.
The film is set to release in November this year. (PTI)
