With Mumbai Police exploring all angles, including professional rivalry in Sushant Singh Rajput’s case, statements from industry people like SLB and most recently – Aditya Chopra were also recorded.
The Police had earlier interrogated two former top YRF executives about Sushant’s contract with the banner and also asked for copies of the contract.
As per ABP News, in his statement to the Police which was recorded over 5 hours, Aditya Chopra revealed that they had invested 5-6 crore in Paani and the only reason it got shelved was because of creative differences with Shekhar Kapur. SSR was released later from the contract without any hard feelings.
“YRF decided to cast Sushant in ‘Paani’. Shekhar Kapur gave his approval after YRF convinced him. We invested Rs 5-6 crore in ‘Paani’. The film got shelved due to creative differences. Sushant was later released from the contract. There were no hard feelings.”
Talking about Sushant having to turn down Ramleela and Bajirao Mastani due to YRF contract, Aditya Chopra commented that Ranveer Singh was offered Ramleela in April 2013, even before Sushant signed YRF contract in November-December 2013.
Chopra further added that SLB didn’t approach YRF about Bajirao Mastani nor did Sushant inform them that he was offered the movie or wanted to do it.
“YRF signed a contract with Sushant during November-December 2013 while Sanjay Leela Bhansali signed Ranveer Singh for ‘Ramleela’ in April 2013. Ranveer was offered ‘Ramleela’ even before SSR signed a contract with YRF. So there is no question of Sushant losing the film because of his contract with YRF. Sanjay Leela Bhansali didn’t approach YRF for ‘Bajirao Mastani’. Sushant also didn’t inform us about ‘Bajirao Mastani’. He didn’t tell us that he was offered the movie or he wished to do it.”
Aditya concluded by saying that he and his team always promoted Sushant, and that if they could allow Sushant to work on MS Dhoni, why would they stop him from doing Bajirao Mastani?
“If we can allow him to do ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’ while he was in a contract with YRF, why will we stop him from doing ‘Bajirao Mastani’? I and my team always promoted Sushant.”