Vishal Punjabi, popularly known as The Wedding Filmer, recently revealed that he once planned to make a movie with Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra. However, the project never materialized due to his visa issues.
In a recent interview, Vishal discussed his long-standing association with Shah Rukh Khan and shared that he was deported from India when he decided to collaborate with the Bollywood icon. He explained that the deportation occurred because he was working in the country on a tourist visa.
While speaking on a YouTube channel, Vishal Punjabi said, “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.”
Despite being deported, Vishal mentioned that Shah Rukh Khan faced government scrutiny due to his efforts to bring him back to India. Vishal alleged that previous governments were not “very kind” to Shah Rukh Khan because of his religion. Nonetheless, Shah Rukh made significant efforts to help Vishal return to the country.
He said, “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.”
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Vishal Punjabi further disclosed that his deportation was eventually revoked after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, allowing him to work in India again.
