EXCLUSIVE: Were the Manikarnika producers adamant on Kangana Ranaut directing the rest of the period film?

Kangana Ranaut starrer Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi has been riddled with controversies including Sonu Sood's untimely exit. Contrary to reports, sources reveal that the makers have asked Kangana to step in director Krish's shoes to direct the remaining portions.

Written by Karishma Shetty , Journalist

Updated on Sep 03, 2018 | 04:31 PM IST | 560.3K

Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi has been riddled with controversies lately. Whether it be the constant delays or the mystery of who is directing the film. The latest controversy surrounding Kangana's film is Sonu Sood's untimely exit from the biopic. While sources close to Kangana suggest that Sood misused his friendship with director Krish, Sonu hit back at Ranaut questioning her competency as a director. As things get uglier by the day, Simran writer Apurva Asrani too joined the bandwagon and laid in his two cents on the controversy as he too battled in a war of words with the actress last year over writing credits of Simran.

Apurva tweeted, "A star hijacking a film & running down the hard work of crew member/s is the worst form of hara-kiri there is. When affected filmmakers cannot control this & instead put on a facade of a ‘dignified silence’, they allow a monstrous ego to go on a rampage & eventually kill the film." When Pinkvilla contacted a source close to Kangana about the whole controversy, they stated, "There is no logic to this whole mess. Will the studio blindly give Kangana the film and crores of money every day to shoot? All of a sudden she can arm-twist the producers to give in crores of money? It is their hard earned money too."

The source also added, "How can a director just move on when he is bound by a contract? Has anyone asked this logical question? Basically, when the producers saw the rough cut they were upset with Krish and were not happy. Hence Kangana was asked to take over. From a logical point of view if a director is under contract and is being paid by the producers then he has to reshoot if there are any changes too. But, they chose to let him go and not insist on him taking the reigns again cause they weren’t happy. They then asked Kangana to step in. Only 20-30% of what Krish shot is being retained and the other portions are being reshot. The initial budget was around Rs 60 crores but the producers are ready to give in Rs 20 crores more for the reshoot as they trust Kangana. The unit is shooting in ND studios and will wrap up only by mid-October. How can Kangana blackmail the producers to give money every day for the production cost? This doesn’t make any sense."

Talking about how Kangana is seeing to it that Manikarnika does not get shelved, the source concluded, "Kangana has also pushed Ashwini Iyer Tiwari's film that was supposed to start from September because the studio has given her the responsibility to direct and complete the film. Kangana had an option to either direct or let the film be shelved. She agreed and decided to lead the unit. Producers had full liberty to get a new director on board but they didn’t. The action director, Nick Powell is called back to reshoot certain portions too."