Salman Khan says Priyanka Chopra quit Bharat to get married knowing it might make him angry, which is a ‘gutsy thing to do’

Actor Salman Khan has said that despite his recent comments against Priyanka Chopra, he has no animosity towards the actor, who quit his film Bharat at the last moment, forcing the crew to hire Katrina Kaif instead. “I am not taunting Priyanka Chopra at all,” Salman told the Times of India. “People would leave their husbands for a film like this, but I feel what she has done is the most amazing thing.”

He continued, “She has worked so hard in her career. She really wanted to do this film and she left it to get married. I just joke about it in front of Katrina. If she says something about the film, I say, ‘Thank you, Priyanka’, hinting she should say it, so that Katrina gets annoyed. I just tease Katrina. I have no problem with Priyanka. It’s a wonderful thing what she has done. She did it knowing perhaps that I might get upset, I might not like it or might not work with her... Despite all the thoughts that may have crossed her mind, she chose to get married to a man instead of this movie, which is a correct, noble and gutsy thing to do.”

Salman has made several, unprompted comments against Priyanka in recent interviews, implying that she gave them no room to prepare, and left them in a lurch at the last moment. He told Bollywood Hungama, “Over Bharat, she chose USA in the ‘nick’ of time. She has worked all her life so hard and when she got the biggest film of her life, she dumped the film and got married. Hats off! Usually people leave the husbands for this.”

WATCH: Bharat song launch | Salman takes dig at Priyanka, says he’s not Katrina’s ‘bhaijaan’

Also read: Ali Abbas Zafar reacts to Salman Khan’s comments on Priyanka Chopra: ‘What he’s doing to her happens to me on set everyday’

Salman said at a press interaction that he’d always wanted for Katrina to star in the film, but director Ali Abbas Zafar wanted a ‘Hindustani’ girl. “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.”

He continued, “Look, she did the right thing. She did what she wanted, and Katrina got what she deserved. 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. She spoke to me saying, ‘Nick (American actor-singer Nick Jonas) has proposed to me and I want to get married, so there will be some date issues’. I said, ‘Sure, get married, we can adjust those two, three days. Then she said that she does not want to do the film.”

Bharat also stars Sunil Grover, Nora Fatehi, Disha Patani and Jacky Shroff. The film will release on June 5.

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