Karan Johar and Kartik Aaryan announced their first ever association with Dostana 2. The actor was finalised to play the lead, after several top heroes including Shahid Kapoor, Sidharth Malhotra, Tiger Shroff, Diljit Dosanjh and others declined the role. Nobody wanted to play brother to Janhvi Kapoor in the film but Kartik, who desperately wanted to do a film with Dharma Productions had instantly agreed to be part of the project. The film completed its first schedule but the pandemic and the lockdown put everything on pause.
Now, after months of Kartik dilly dallying with the dates owing to his safety, he decided to first wrap up Ram Madhvani's film Dhamaka and that annoyed Karan. A source tells us, "For the longest time, Kartik gave a genuine reason of the Covid 19 pandemic to not start shoot. He wanted to ensure safety so Karan didn't push him much. But when he shot for Dhamaka, Karan was upset. They had an indoor meeting where Karan expressed his disappointment."
Kartik later did the unthinkable and that led to major fallout with Karan Johar. "Kartik got upset with the banner when they gave Shashank Khaitan's Yoddha to Shahid Kapoor. Although Shahid soon quit, they never approached Kartik for the role anyway. Also Kartik’s dates were not available for Dostana 2, Karan decided to go ahead and start Mr. Lele with Vicky Kaushal and Janhvi Kapoor from April. The moment Kartik got to know about this development; he informed the production house that the only dates available for Dostana 2 this year will be April onwards. Karan understood what Kartik was doing and quickly reprimanded him for the same. He was genuinely upset with Kartik as Janhvi had to pick between Dostana 2 and Mr. Lele. The last we heard, Karan and Kartik are not speaking a word to each other."
However a source close to Kartik tells a different story saying, “Kartik was to start work on Bhool Bhulaiya 2, but the project was delayed since Tabu did not want to take a risk with the shoot. Since Bhool Bhulaiya 2 was rescheduled, he allocated his available dates to shoot Dhamaka. Dostana 2 shoot was to be an overseas schedule that would be shot in the UK. This shoot got pushed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the new lockdown rules prohibited its execution. In fact, even now there is no clarity when it comes to the overseas shoot, since the pandemic has continued to wreak havoc. But despite this uncertainty of the overseas shoot for Dostana 2 and the fact that Kartik is juggling multiple projects, he has ensured that he has dates available in April that he has allocated to Dostana 2.”
Further reasoning that such date issues are currently common place with most from the industry the source close to Kartik Aaryan continues, “The problem on dates is not only confined to Kartik; this is happening with most celebrities working on multiple projects. They have to juggle multiple projects simultaneously. So it is not entirely Kartik's fault. In fact, he will be shooting 3-4 days for Bhool Bhulaiya 2 over the next 3-4 weeks with Kiara.”
Also Read: Kartik Aaryan to sign Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s web series Heera Mandi?
