Abhishek Bachchan on Paltan exit: I had to bow out of the film for personal reasons

By Gurpreet Kaur

on August 30, 2018

After a long hiatus, filmmaker JP Dutta is back with another war film, Paltan. The multi-starrer, featuring Jackie Shroff, Arjun Rampal, Sonu Sood, Gurmeet Chaudhary, Luv Sinha, Harshvardhan Rane and Siddhant Kapoor, is slated to hit the theatres on September 7, 2018.

Not to forget, Paltan had grabbed a lot of headlines earlier after Abhishek Bachchan, who was approached for the film, walked out of it just a few hours before the shoot. Abhishek's sudden change of plan obviously left everyone shocked because the actor had himself given a nod to the film. While the actor had kept mum on the issue for a long time, he finally revealed in an interview with a leading daily that he exited the film due to personal reasons.

“I was obviously doing Paltan and for personal reasons, I had to bow out of the film. It was devastating for me because it’s JP saab. He didn’t only launch me but he has been like a mentor, family to me,” Abhishek said.

Junior Bachchan had not only made his Bollywood debut with JP Dutta's Refugee (2000) but later collaborated with him on two more projects – LOC Kargil (2003) and the remake of Umrao Jaan (2006). Talking about his relationship with the filmmaker, he said, "He is somebody I love immensely and I really wanted to be there for him especially when he was going on this journey because he was making a film after so long. But it was heartbreaking for me to not be able to stand by him during the making of the film."

Abhishek, who is currently awaiting the release of the release of Manmarziyaan, further added how the promo of Paltan looks fantastic and claimed that he will be the first one to watch the film in theatres.

While JP Dutta seemed to have no clue about Abhishek ’s decision to exit his film, the actor said he has spoken to the director. "Of course, I have spoken to him. I messaged (him). I tweeted about it. He is the best at what he does. I am partial and I am biased. I will always be and unabashedly so,” Abhishek said.

Well, it looks like Abhishek has tried to bury the hatchet with the filmmaker. We wonder how JP Dutta reacts to it.