It’s not happening! Katrina Kaif is not “replacing” Parineeti Chopra opposite Akshay Kumar in Anurag Singh’s film Kesari as has been “exclusively” reported by a couple of Bollywood sites today.

Peeping Moon.com sources reveal that the information is totally off the mark. And that Parineeti will very much play the wife of Akshay’s character Havildar Ishar Singh in the period war drama that’s being produced by Karan Johar based on the historic Battle of Saragarhi.

Kesari is slated to go on the floor in January 2018. Quoting trade sources, the earlier media reports said that Parineeti was not on board because the actress’ dates had already been given to Vipul Shah for Namaste Canada. And that Karan had approached Katrina for the role, instead.

Katrina was said to be keen on doing the film because it was earlier reported that Salman Khan was co-producing it with Karan and she was friendly with all three – Akshay, Salman and Karan.

The news caught the fancy of Akshay and Katrina fans because this Bollywood couple had ruled the box office in the early 2000s with a string of super hit films. However, due to different professional commitments, they had not worked together since Tees Maar Khan in 2010.

There was some speculation that Katrina might not accept Kesari because she was also likely to accept Shree Narayan Singh’s Roshni opposite Shahid Kapoor. But that was shot down with the “confirmation” this morning that Katrina had definitely replaced Parineeti in Kesari opposite Akshay.

The story spread like wildfire because, after long, Akshay and Katrina were spotted together over the weekend at the Andheri Sports Complex in Mumbai where she was a special guest at his IX Akshay Kumar Invitational Kudo Tournament.

Fans of Bollywood’s Jodi No. 1 from films like Namastey London and Singh Is Kinng rejoiced at the news of them working together in Kesari after both actors shared happy pictures and funny messages on social media of their action packed evening at the martial arts tournament.

But it’s not true. Parineeti Chopra is not being replaced by Katrina Kaif in the film. You may take our word for it.