Rajniesh Duggal recalls how he was almost about to work with Priyanka Chopra

Rajniesh Duggal recalled losing the film Yakeen opposite Priyanka Chopra early in his career after being dropped over concerns about working with a newcomer. The actor said the experience shaped his decision to support new talent in future projects

Mumbai:  Actor Rajniesh Duggal recalled how he missed the opportunity to work with Bollywood diva Priyanka Chopra. During an exclusive conversation with IANS, Rajniesh recalled that he was almost signed to do Priyanka Chopra starrer “Yakeen”. However, for some reason, he was later removed from the project.

He shared that he was told Priyanka does not wish to work with a newcomer. He was asked, “There are times when actors are hesitant to work with newcomers. Has anything like this happened to you?”

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Sharing the incident in his own words, Rajniesh recalled, “There was one instance in the beginning of my career, which was for a film called ‘Yakeen and at that time I was signed to do the film with Priyanka Chopra. I was brand new in the industry at the time. I was doing an acting course. She was already a big name in the sense that she was doing a film with Salman Sir (Salman Khan), with Akshay Kumar. See, So with all due respect, I don’t even know whether it was her call, or her manager’s call, or the overall people involved in the project, but, I was called at 2 o’clock in the night, and I was told that there is a problem in the film and the problem is that, she (Priyanka Chopra) doesn’t want to work with a newcomer.” “So, that was one instance. Besides that, it’s never happened. This was way back. I think, probably, I had never even faced the camera till then”, he added.

Learning from the incident, Rajniesh decided to never refuse to work with a newcomer. “However, after that, I made a decision that I will never refuse to work with a newcomer, and I have stuck to it. I am very open to working with newcomers,” he concluded.