Mumbai, June 22 (IANS) Katrina Kaif was supposed to fly down to Mumbai for a day to attend the ‘Raajneeti’ success party Wednesday from Spain, where she is shooting for Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Zindagi Milegi Na Dobara’, but the actress had to drop her plans because of the inclement weather there.
The ‘Raajneeti’ team has a lot to celebrate about, but director Prakash Jha wanted no celebration until his lucky mascot Katrina was available.
But Zoya’s crew has been facing rough weather ever since they arrived in Spain. Apparently six days of shooting had to be cancelled because of heavy rains. And now they need to quickly make up for lost time since their work permits and visas would expire.
Jha admits that Katrina would be unable to make it to the party.
‘They’ve lost a lot of time because of the rain in Spain. I couldn’t dream of having a ‘Raajneeti’ bash without Katrina. And I had postponed it until her availability. But now it’s impossible for Katrina to fly down,’ Jha told IANS.
Katrina even requested the film’s producers and the director to accommodate her absence for less than a day.
Says a source close to Katrina: ‘Since Prakash Jha was very, very keen to have her down to Mumbai for the bash, and had even made all the arrangements for her flight, Katrina was not willing to give up the idea of attending the function. She offered to be back in less than 24 hours. Katrina was willing to fly to Mumbai, attend the ‘Raajneeti’ bash on Wednesday and fly out the same night to re-join the ‘…Dobara’ team the next morning. But this has not been allowed.’
Jha will now record a video message from Katrina and play it at the party. ‘So she will be with us in spirit if not in person,’ he said.
Katrina, on the other hand, tried to sound diplomatic and not disappointed. ‘It is a big day. And the success of ‘Raajneeti’ is very precious to me. But I can’t leave the crew in Spain.’
She admits there’re lots of unscheduled breaks. Katrina has got one of her sisters, Melissa, to join her in Spain to give her company at break time.
‘London is just two hours, so Melissa could join me. Mumbai is in another hemisphere. Flying down is impossible. Please tell Prakashji, mera party baqi raha,’ she said.
