Priyanka Chopra may play Aamir Khan's wife in Salute, Rakesh Sharma's biopic

Three months ago, it was announced that Mahesh Mathai’s space adventure, Salute, will see Aamir Khan play Indian astronaut Rakesh Sharma. In what is touted as Sharma’s biopic, Priyanka Chopra is now speculated to play his wife in the film. Mid-Day reports that Priyanka is being considered for the role opposite Aamir in Salute. This will mark the first time the two actors will be seen sharing the screen space. Also, it will prolong Priyanka’s return to Bollywood as the film will start rolling only in the mid of the next year since Aamir is currently shooting for Vijay Krishna Acharya’s period heist dram Thugs of Hindostan, that is slated to release on Christmas 2018. Priyanka’s last Bollywood film was Prakash Jha’s crime drama Jai Gangaajal last year. Since then, she has been busy shooting for her three Hollywood films and her American TV series Quantico. While she was reportedly in talks to star in yet another space biopic, of late Indian-American astronaut Kalpana Chawla , there is no word of confirmation on the same yet. Also, she was also in talks with her Bajirao Mastani director Sanjay Leela Bhansali to star in another biopic, Gustakhiyan, in which she was approached to play poetess Amrita Pritam. However, now she has opted out of the film reportedly owing to Bhansali’s disagreement of her co-producing the film along with him, under her banner Purple Pebble Pictures. But DNA reports that Madhu Chopra, her mother and co-owner of Purple Pebble Pictures, has now come clear on the issue. The same report quotes her as saying, “Priyanka was no doubt in talks with Bhansali, but the two couldn’t fit their time schedules to discuss the film. The question of co-producing would have come in only at a later stage. As of now, nothing has gone forward. He can make it on his own, why will he need a co-producer?” It was earlier reported that after Shah Rukh Khan and Priyanka Chopra backed out of the film, Bhansali has approached Abhishek Bachchan and his wife Aishwarya Rai Bachchan to play poet Sahir Ludhianvi and Pritam respectively.