Director Ketan Mehta has alleged that Kangana Ranaut and producer Kamal Jain have hijacked his film Rani of Jhansi: Warrior Queen, and has consequently sent a legal notice to Ranaut asking that she stop working on the film Manikarnika.
Ketan Mehta told the Hindustan Times, “This is regarding my project called Rani of Jhansi: The Warrior Queen and her (Kangana’s) attempt and the producer Kamal Jain at hijacking the project. Since 2015, I was in contact with Kangana for the project. I was sharing research material and several drafts of the script with Kangana and she was actively participating.”
Ketan added, “My legal notice says how we have worked on the project for two years and how all of a sudden everything happened. We have asked for the film (Manikarnika) to stop as we plan to go ahead with our project (Rani of Jhansi).”
A source close to the filmmaker said that he had been working on the project and researching the story for about 10 years. Hindustan Times had earlier reported that Ketan Mehta and the producers were looking to cast Kangana and British actor Hugh Grant for the film.
Ketan Mehta says he learnt of Manikarnika, directed by Krish, only through the press. He said, “Kangana introduced me to Mr Kamal Jain. We had an international producer and we were looking for an Indian co-producer. We had meetings with Mr Kamal where Kangana was also involved and we shared all the information. And then, suddenly, we hear about this project. It is completely unethical. And this was after we shared access to all our research material from past ten years.”
Here is the Poster of @DirKrish Next #Manikarnika The Queen of Jhansi #KanganaRanaut #KanganaInKashi pic.twitter.com/Qtu3Fv36hI
— Vamsi Shekar PRO (@UrsVamsiShekar) May 4, 2017
Recently, Kangana Ranaut, and other members of the team of Manikarnika, released the first-look for the film in Varanasi. Titled Manikarnika: The Rani of Jhansi, it is produced by Kamal Jain, on a script written by Vijendra Prasad and Prasoon Joshi, and will be directed by Krish.
Image Courtesy: Hindustan Times
