Katrina Kaif replaces Priyanka Chopra in Bharat, Salman Khan welcomes her on-board

Katrina Kaif will play the lead role opposite Salman Khan in Bharat. Earlier, Priyanka Chopra was supposed to play the role.

After Priyanka Chopra walked out of Salman Khan’s project Bharat directed by Ali Abbas Zafar, Katrina Kaif has been signed on to play the lead role in the film. Salman Khan tweeted, “Ek sundar aur shusheel ladki jiska Naam hai Katrina Kaif .... Swagat hai aapka #Bharat ki zindagi mein ... (One beautiful and demure girl named Katrina Kaif, welcome to the world of Bharat).”

Katrina Kaif will be paired opposite Salman Khan in Bharat.

Speaking about Katrina playing the role in Bharat, director Ali Abbas Zafar said to HT earlier, “Katrina is a very big superstar and I’ve worked closely with her in two films. I shared the [Bharat] script with her and she liked the role.”

He also added, “The way Salman sir’s and my vision is, we talk about everything. But he leaves the decision to me. Katrina was solely my decision, only for the reason that I’ve worked with her in two films, and her work was very nice.”

Ali also said that he was grateful Priyanka informed them about her decision in time to find a replacement so that the shooting schedules were not hampered. Katrina Kaif will begin to shoot for the film from August.

Katrina and Ali have also worked in two films earlier - Mere Brother Ke Dulhan and Tiger Zinda Hai.

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