The Kangana Ranaut-starrer epic biographical movie “Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi” is amidst controversy once again. Earlier this year, a Brahmin organization ‘Sarv Brahmin Mahasabha’ from Rajasthan alleged that the movie-makers had distorted historical facts by featuring a romantic scene between the renowned queen and a British East Indian company agent. This time, rumors flew that Ranaut had replaced the original director Krish Jagarlamudi with herself for the movie.
Fire was added to the fuel when a picture of clapperboards from the sets that bore Ranaut’s name as the director went viral on social media platforms. Sensing that this could escalate quickly, the team immediately put out a clarification statement on their Instagram page – “Krish Jagarlamudi is the director of Manikarnika and will remain so. Kangana Ranaut has stepped in to shoot just the patchwork on his behalf while he fulfills his commitments in another movie, to make sure that Manikarnika releases on 25th Jan 2019. The clapboard is merely to avoid on set confusion.”
According to the Instagram post, it clearly means that Kangana Ranaut had simply filled in the director’s space for a short while, as Jagarlamudi had to complete his commitments towards a bilingual movie, “N.T.R”. In such a case, Ranaut’s contribution was essential so that “Manikarnika” is released on 25 January, 2019. “N.T.R.” is based on the life of N.T. Rama Rao, the ex-Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh and will be released in the first half of 2019.
Image Credit: Movie – Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi
“Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi”, as the name suggests, is a celebration of Manikarnika’s courage, strength and passion as she fights for independence against the British East India company at the time of the historical rebellion of 1857. Kangana Ranaut plays the lead role of Manikarnika, followed by Jisshu Sengupta, Atul Kulkarni, Sonu Sood, Suresh Oberoi, Vaibhav Tatwawaadi and Ankita Lokhande.
Kangana Ranaut has regularly been in news regarding several controversies for quite some time. Earlier on, she had a dispute with the “Simran” writer Apurva Asrani, who had accused her of stealing her writing credits. Later, there was a huge public scandal concerning Ranaut and Hrithik Roshan as well.
The movie “Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi” will be released on 25 January 2019.
