Actress Parineeti Chopra was the front runner to star in the eagerly anticipated Hindi remake of the Tamil action thriller ‘Thuppakki’, starring Akshay Kumar and directed by AR Murugadoss of ‘Ghajini’ fame.

Both Akshay Kumar and AR Murugadoss were very keen on working with Parineeti Chopra but later reports emerged that the actress had chosen to turn down the project, which shocked many as this would have been Parineeti Chopra’s big break.

Apparently, Parineeti Chopra had to turn down the movie as she is bound to Yash Raj Films with three movie contract deal and Yash Raj Films refused to let Parineeti Chopra work in any outside projects, while she is still bound by the contract.

Aditya Chopra has refused the idea of Parineeti working in a film outside the YRF banner, when she is shooting for their new film with director Maneesh Sharma opposite Sushant Singh Rajput.

Akshay Kumar spoke to the production house to reach some sort of agreement but the effort proved futile. So Akshay Kumar and AR Murugadoss have decided to go ahead with project with Sonakshi Sinha as the female lead.

"We tried really hard for Parineeti. But she was committed by contract to a project with Yash Raj Films," said director A. Murugadoss to IANS confirming the news reports.

This will be Sonakshi Sinha’s fourth movie with Akshay Kumar. The actress has already seen opposite Akshay in ‘Rowdy Rathore’ and ‘Joker’. The duo is currently busy shooting for ‘Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai 2’. Sonakshi also did a special appearance in Akshay Kumar’s movie ‘Oh My God’.