Actor Abhishek Bachchan , who was all gung-ho about reuniting with filmmaker JP Dutta who launched him in movies with Refugee, has opted out of Paltan 24 hours before the movie went on floors. Nidhi Dutta, the daughter of the veteran filmmaker JP Dutta , told a newspaper, “Abhishek Bachchan is no longer part of Paltan for personal reasons best known to him. It has come as a shock to us as this happened less than 24 hours before our unit left to shoot in Ladakh.”

Abhishek had announced his association with the film in June this year. The actor even shared the poster of the film captioning, “Brother to my left, brother to my right. Together we stand. Together we fight! I'm part of the PALTAN, are you?” the actor had written on his social media.

Talking further, Nidhi adds, “But we also believe that especially in the movies we make, it’s the soldiers sitting up there that choose who will play them and recreate their lives on screen. Nevertheless, we wish him ( Abhishek Bachchan ) luck with his future endeavors. We are already in Ladakh filming with our entire cast and crew and Army personnel. We will announce the actor who is replacing Abhishek in the film soon.”

Paltan , which marks JP Dutta ’s comeback to films after 11 years as he last directed Umrao Jaan with Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in 2006, also features Suniel Shetty , Sonu Sood , Rana Daggubati , Pulkit Samrat , Siddhanth Kapoor , Arjun Rampal , Jimmy Shergill and Gurmeet Choudhary in lead roles.