Pinkvilla exclusively reported earlier this week that Ajay Devgn and his team had assembled a large star-studded cast for the comedy caper Son of Sardaar 2, which has begun production in London. We informed our readers that Ravi Kishan, Mrunal Thakur, Vijay Raaz, Chunkey Pandey, Vindu Dara Singh, Deepak Dobriyal, Mukul Dev, Ashwini Kalsekar, Kubbra Sait, and Sanjay Dutt will play key roles in the film. And now, in a startling turn of events, we have exclusively learned from the sets that the producers have decided to take a drastic step by pulling Vijay Raaz from the movie.
According to insiders close to the project, Vijay Raaz has allegedly been harsh with the producers and crew of Son of Sardaar 2 on the set. We asked Kumar Mangat Pathak, who co-produced Son of Sardaar 2 with Ajay Devgn, for a reaction. The filmmaker said, “Yes, it’s true that we have removed Vijay Raaz from the film because of his behaviour on the sets. He demanded for bigger rooms, vanity van and also overcharged us for the spot boys. In-fact, his spot boy was paid Rs.20,000 per night which is more than any big actor. UK is an expensive place, and everyone got standard rooms during the shoot, but he demanded premium suites. When we tried explaining the costing scenario to him, he refused to understand, and spoke rudely. His constant response was, ‘Aap Logo Ne Mujhe Approach Kiya, Main Kaunsa Saamne Se Aya Kaam Mangne’. While we tried to accommodate all his demands, the behaviour kept getting worse, as his demands never ended. He started to demand two cars for a 3 person staff to travel for as well. How can we do that? When the EP said no, he was rude with the EP (Executive Producer). After all the discussions, we decided to remove him from the film.”
Vijay Raaz had a different story to tell. He told Pinkvilla, “I reached the location before time for trial. I reached the van, and Ravi Kishan came to meet me. The EP, Ashish, and the producer Kumar Mangat came to meet me, followed by director Vijay Arora. I stepped out of the van, and spotted Ajay Devgn standing around 25 metres away. I didn’t go to greet him as he was busy, and I continued to speak to my friends around. 25 minutes later, Mr. Kumar Mangat came to me 0061nd said, ‘Aap Film Se Nikal Jaaye, Hum Aapko Nikal Rahe Hai’. The only misconduct from my end is, I didn’t greet Mr. Ajay Devgn. I didn’t even meet the crew, and these are the only people I interacted with. I was removed from the film 30 minutes of reaching the sets, as I didn’t greet Ajay Devgn. These are powerful people, and the chatter of misconduct doesn’t arise at all.”
According to Kumar Mangat Pathak, the problems began in Mumbai when Vijay Raaz signed on for the project. Mangat said, “Ajay Devgn isn’t someone who is waiting to be greeted by people. He always likes to be surrounded by creative people and treats everyone with respect. The story of him being removed for not greeting Ajay Devgn is false. We suffered a loss of at-least two crore for removing Vijay Raaz from the film and we would not take such a step for small matters. His behaviour was a major area of concern and there is no place for disrespect on the sets of our film, as we work like a family. He constantly told all our EP’s and even me that he isn’t in need of doing Son of Sardaar 2, and he is doing it only because we approached him. He kept demanding bigger room, despite knowing that the rooms cost a bomb in UK. He refused to co-operate. The attitude is a problem and even we didn’t want to associate with a person having such mentality.”
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