‘Priyanka Chopra looked ordinary’: Suneel Darshan says she got Andaaz after nose surgery

3 min readKochiJul 29, 2026 04:00 PM IST Lara Dutta, Akshay Kumar and Priyanka Chopra in Andaaz. (Express archive photo)In the initial years of his directorial journey, Suneel Darshan mostly cast Karisma Kapoor as the female lead. After their successful collaboration in Ajay (1996), Jaanwar (1999), and Ek Rishtaa (2001), he joined forces with Karisma’s sister Kareena Kapoor in Talaash: The Hunt Begins (2003). However, in his next production venture, Raj Kanwar’s Andaaz (2003), he did not go with Kareena, but rather cast two fairly fresh faces: Priyanka Chopra and Lara Dutta. While Priyanka, the Miss World 2000, was just two films old at that time, Andaaz marked the acting debut of Lara, the winner of the Miss Intercontinental 1997 and Miss Universe 2000 pageants. However, when Priyanka wal