Popular photographer Vishal Punjabi, also known as The Wedding Filmer, has revealed that he once decided to make a movie with Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra but did not happen because of his visa issues. In a recent interview, Vishal talked about his decade-long association with SRK and revealed that he was deported from India at a time when he decided to make a film with Bollywood’s King Khan. The protographer explained that it was because he was on a tourist visa in the country.
“In 2007, I was about to make a big Bollywood film. I had written the script with a friend of mine called Zoya Akhtar. She’s a big director now, but at the time, she was struggling to make her first film… Priyanka had said yes to my film, Shah Rukh had said yes to my film. Me and Reema and Zoya were kicked about it. And then I got deported from India because I didn’t have an OCI. I had a tourist visa, and I was technically not allowed to work on a tourist visa. It was very stupid of me, because I thought it’s India, they’d fix it,” Vishal said on the Brown Game Strong YouTube channel.
The photographer revealed that even though he was deported from the country, Shah Rukh Khan came under government’s scrutiny. He alleged that the previous governments were not “very kind” to SRK because of his religion. However, despite everything, Shah Rukh tried his best to bring Vishal back to India.
“I got deported, and there was nothing anybody could do. The fact that I worked with Shah Rukh made my case worse because he was under scrutiny. For some reason, governments aren’t very kind to him, I think it has to do with his religion. It was heartbreaking for him as well because I was in charge of a lot of big projects for him. He tried everything that he could to see me come back… I went through a very hard time, but he worked tirelessly to get me back,” he said.
The Wedding Filmer revealed that his Vishal’s deportation was revoked after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and he was then allowed to work in India.
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