'Fitoor' director explains Rekha's exit from film

Filmmaker Abhishek Kapoor has put rest to rumours that actress Rekha left "Fitoor" as she found an uncanny resemblance between her real life and her character. He says it was only because they "saw things very differently" that they decided it would be best not to do this film together.

"When we started out, Rekhaji was in the film. She is a wonderful, gracious, generous and a very lovely lady. During the course of the making the film, we just saw things very differently and right at the beginning, we thought it's best that we don't do this film together; and we will workout something else in future," Kapoor said here.

Rubbishing recent reports conjecturing on Rekha's exit from the film, he said: "When reports like this come out, it's not fair to the lovely lady because she is a very reserved and a private person. She would not stand up and say something to safeguard her own interest. I think we should be more cautious and it would be cruel to say something like that about her."

The enigmatic veteran actress in future was roped in to play the character of Begum in Kapoor's Indian adaptation of the popular Charles Dickens's classic novel "Great Expectations". She walked out of the project in May 2015, and the very versatile Tabu replaced her.

Kapoor said he's thankful to Tabu.

"I had Tabu who graciously came on board and she got into the skin of the character, which is so layered. I want to thank Tabu who came to rescue us in a matter of three days. More than that, I don't know what to say," he said, adding that the characterisation didn't change at all.

"Fitoor", releasing next month, features Katrina Kaif playing Firdaus, while Aditya Roy Kapur is seen as Noor.