Kangana Ranaut’s new film Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi has been surrounded by controversies from several quarters. If director Krish’s war of words with her sister Rangoli Chandel wasn’t enough, actress Mishti, cast as Kashi Bai in Manikarnika, told a leading entertainment portal that Kangana made “fake promises” to the cast and crew of the film.
After watching the final version of Manikarnika, Mishti was surprised as she said that the film turned out to be absolutely different from what she was expecting. "This was not what I was expecting. This was not what we shot for. This was not what I was promised,” she said, adding, "I would go with Krish's version. Kangana modified the movie in the edit."
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Mishti and Kangana Ranaut in a still from Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi[/caption]
Manikarnika involved itself in controversy ever since Krish, who was directing the project, opted out of it midway. Kangana, who plays the titular role in the film, stepped into Krish’s shoes as the director after he departed the project due to what has been blamed on scheduling conflicts and creative differences. While addressing his conflict with Kangana, Krish, in several interviews, said that his version of the film has been ‘reshot and modified’ by the actress in order to primarily ‘glorify’ herself in Manikarnika while Kangana has also been accused of ‘chopping off’ her co-actors’ sequences.
Mishti, in fact, also quoted Kangana as saying, “I want dates because all characters look jumbled up. I want to introduce them properly. I have taken nice close-ups…I am trying my best to give everybody a prominent space on screen,” but after watching Manikarnika, Mishti is seemingly upset as she added, “After watching the movie, there is no scope for other characters. So there was no need to make fake promises.”
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Mishti photographed in Mumbai[/caption]
Ankita Lokhande, on the other hand, is on Kangana’s side it seems. Cast as Jhalkari Bai in Manikarnika, which also marks her debut in Bollywood, Ankita said that none of her scenes has been deleted. “I don’t know anything about the controversy. I can’t say anything. None of my scenes were decreased or deleted. Whatever scenes I had were of course shot properly and well. I guess I had more scenes. I have no complaints,” Ankita was quoted as saying by a leading daily.
Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi opened to mixed reviews on January 25.
