‘Initially Priyanka was keen to do Bharat’

It was Priyanka Chopra Jonas who had initially shown keen interest to be a part of Bharat, according to superstar Salman Khan who says her last-minute exit from the film was “embarrassing”.
Salman said in a media interaction here: “Initially, Priyanka was very keen to do this film. Ali (director Ali Abbas Zafar) and we all thought it was Katrina Kaif’s film. But Katrina and I did Tiger Zinda Hai just before that and Ali said that we need a girl who is ‘Hindustani’.
“I tried telling him, ‘Why can’t she (Katrina) pull off this role? She has been living in India for the last 20 years.’ But then Ali said, ‘Priyanka ka phone aaya tha… (we got a call from Priyanka)’ and it is also true that Priyanka and my sister Arpita Khan are good friends.
“After all this, the ‘Nick story’ happened, the embarrassing thing happened and she chose to get married.”
Salman said: “She (Priyanka) informed us five days before the schedule was supposed to start… she must have thought that in this way I would get upset with her and will never work with her.” (IANS)