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Priyanka Chopra earned critical acclaim for 7 Khoon Maaf, but the film also sparked controversy after Annu Kapoor claimed she was hesitant to kiss him onscreen. Though he later said his remark was blown out of proportion, Kapoor has now revisited the issue in a recent interaction.
Annu Kapoor said on Siddharth Kannan's podcast, "What else could it be? More than my looks, the problem was that I am not a hero. I don't really know. When we worked together in the Vishal Bhardwaj film Saat Khoon Maaf, several journalists kept asking me if Priyanka refused to kiss me. This was around 16 years ago. During one such interaction, someone asked me why she didn't kiss me, and I replied, 'That's her wish.' Woh baar baar puch rahe the aur main jhujhla ke bola (They kept pestering me, and I eventually got irritated and said, 'Maybe she would have if I was a star.')"
He continued, "It never made a difference to me. I was unbothered. Vishal Bhardwaj told me she was hesitant to kiss me. I used to call her 'beta' as I had bonded well with her father on set. After winning Miss World, she had come to Antakshari. So when I was told she wasn't comfortable, I said, 'That makes sense.' I even suggested removing the scene, but Vishal refused. We had to go ahead with it. Actors can't appear uncomfortable on camera, so we did the scene professionally."
Annu Kapoor had said, "She doesn't have a problem doing intimate scenes with heroes. If talent goes out of the window, I guess you just need to be good-looking."
Earlier, in 2011 interview, Priyanka Chopra reacted to Annu Kapoor's comments, saying, "If he wants to do intimate scenes and pass such cheap comments, then he should do those kinds of films. Such scenes were never part of our film. I'm very irritated. I don't think unko aisa kehna shobha deta hai (saying such things doesn't suit him at all). I don't think he knew that his comments would upset me, but they really did. It was very wrong of him to speak the way he did."