India, Sept. 19 -- In what comes as a shock to fans of actor Deepika Padukone, the makers of Kalki 2898 AD (2024), Vyjayanthi Movies, announced on X that she'll not be part of the sequel. The post read, "We've decided to part ways. Despite the long journey of making the first film, we were unable to find a partnership. And a film like @Kalki2898AD deserves that commitment. We wish her the best with her future works." Now, HT City has exclusively learnt the possible reason for the fallout. A source tells us it was allegedly due to monetary disagreements: "Deepika had signed on for the film for a certain fees, and shot some portions already. Post that, her team asked for an increased fees, even after having agreed to a certain sum earlier. The makers tried negotiating with her for months, but there was no headway." As per reports, Deepika asked for a 25% increase in her fee, insisted on a seven-hour workday and demanded five-star accommodation and reimbursement for food for her entourage. The sequel's shoot was planned for the end of this year. However, we further learned that when discussions with the Kalki makers fell through, Deepika allocated those dates to her film with filmmaker Atlee, which was also scheduled to shoot around the same time. This comes not long after the 39-year-old lost out on filmmaker Sandeep Reddy Vanga's Spirit as well. Following her exit from the project, speculation arose that she had demanded an eight-hour workday, a share in the film's profits, and requested not to deliver her dialogues in Telugu - conditions which allegedly did not sit well with Sandeep. She was later replaced by actor Triptii Dimri. Neither Deepika nor Sandeep have addressed the rumoured reasons directly. We attempted to contact Deepika's team, but our efforts weren't met with a reply at the time of going to press....