Actress Kangana Ranaut has responded to reports about non-payment of salary to technicians working on her movie Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi, saying she will be fair and just at all costs. According to a report by TNIE, she said the dispute arose after the film’s production team felt that rate charged by the vendor was high.
Denying different claims being made, Ranaut said, “I’ve been informed about it. There’s nothing as such and it’s just a dispute with a vendor where they don’t think that they should pay as much as the vendor is demanding for.”
According to an India Today report, the Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) had said that the makers of the movie were yet to pay around Rs.1.5 crore to staff and junior artistes working on the film’s sets. Following this, the shoot was halted midway on Wednesday afternoon.
Ashok Dubey, General Secretary of FWICE had said, “It has been three months, but they have not cleared dues of daily wage workers, which is about Rs.40 lakh. About Rs. 90 lakh is to be paid to light vendors and Rs.25 lakh to junior artistes. The producer (Kamal Jain) had promised to make the payment by October but he has not fulfilled his commitment.”
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Ranaut, however, rubbished these claims saying, “I said I won’t go for any promo launch and won’t promote the film even if a single labourer’s money gets stuck. Having said that, I don’t think any such issue can happen on a film like this and Zee Studios have a reputation. We will be fair and just at all costs.”
She also added, “Being a technician is devalued. I want to venture into writing and direction and jobs which are for the unsung heroes. But when injustice happens, it can’t be tolerated.”
Directed by Krish, the movie earlier made news when Sonu Sood exited the team saying Kangana Ranaut was interfering in the directorial duties.
The movie releases on January 25.
Watch the trailer here: