Acharya: Kajal Aggarwal's role edited out from the film, who's to be blamed?

It has never been easy going for the team of Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan-starrer Acharya with respect to its female leads. Firstly, Trisha Krishnan was to be paired alongside Chiranjeevi in the film and before the news was even official, the actress backed out of the project owing to creative differences. It was reported that the extension of Ram Charan's role in the film (from 15 minutes to 45 minutes) tinkered with her screen space and the last-minute addition of another female lead, in the form of Pooja Hegde (opposite Ram Charan), only complicated matters.

Later, Kajal Aggarwal was officially confirmed as a lead alongside Chiranjeevi and the film's shoot kept getting delayed due to miscellaneous factors, from the pandemic to the delay in shooting Ram Charan's portions because of RRR. Finally, Kajal did shoot for a few days for Acharya and the final nail in the coffin was the news of her pregnancy. Now, ahead of the film's release this weekend, the director has confirmed that Kajal's portions from the film have been trimmed on the editing table and she will not be seen in Acharya.

Koratala Siva said that the decision was tough because Kajal's role couldn't quite gel with the narrative and that she didn't have a romantic track with Chiranjeevi. The character reportedly had a few comic shades which didn't suit the mood of the film and her stature. She'll be seen briefly in the song Laahe Laahe though. On the whole, this has turned out to be a costly mistake for the team. When the filmmaker knew that the character wasn't in sync with the film's tone, couldn't it have been corrected/removed at the writing level? 

The entire chaos, confusion surrounding Kajal, her portions and absence in the trailer could have easily been avoided with some forethought. While the news about Kajal's omission from Acharya was informed to her well in advance, the news doesn't leave a good aftertaste. Beyond this setback, Acharya has received good pre-release reports and if the trimming of Kajal's portions ensured a slick narrative, this must be good news for spectators. The film will be releasing only in Telugu as of now, across the globe on April 29, the makers have confirmed.