Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone who were supposed to come together for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Baiju Bawra have backed off from the project. Here’s the reason why!

It’s been almost a year since Baiju Bawra has been on the front covers of news channels and rightfully so, as director Sanjay Leela Bhansali was bringing together a dream team for the movie. The initial cast for the movie saw Ranbir, Deepika, and Alia but now things have turned around a bit, as both ‘Bachna Ae Haseeno’ co-stars are deciding to back off from the project.

While speaking about the cast Bollywood Hungama reported that “Ranbir Kapoor was offered the film; however, the actor did not have a pleasant experience of working with Bhansali during Saawariya. He was clear from the release of his debut film that he would never work with SLB again. That aside, he was heard telling his circle that Baiju Bawra was otherwise a boring script that had a restricted appeal for the audiences today. Hence, it was an easy decision for him to say a no to Bhansali.”

Now as Ranbir Kapoor steps back, Ranveer Singh takes his place in the movie. Following that there were also reports over Deepika Padukone quitting the project as Sanjay Leela Bhansali rejected to keep her pay equal to Ranveer’s. Although the source says that, “After the success of Simmba, Gully Boy, Padmaavat and having a formidable line up in a place with films like 83, Rocky Aur Rani Ki Prem Kahani, Shankar‘s next among others; Ranveer has upped his market fees considerably. Deepika on the other hand is the highest-paid actress among the female counterparts, with an average fee per film in the range of Rs. 15 crores. There is no chance of her demanding equal pay to Ranveer at this point and no producer would even pay that amount.”

While stating the real reason for Deepika’s exit, the source said that “Deepika has her date diaries blocked with multiple commitments. Sanjay Leela Bhansali is looking to take the film on floors around March next year and that coincides with Deepika’s Fighter alongside Hrithik Roshan. She has given preference to Fighter as that’s a fresh space offering her a meaty action-packed role. Apart from Fighter, there is the Prabhas film too which will be shot considerably over the next year. She’s the busiest actress today and wants to do new stuff rather than repeating the same pairing with Ranveer.”

While it is confirmed that Ranveer and Alia will be a part of the project, there is still no confirmation about who will take Deepika’s place to complete the trIO.