Original Director of Manikarnika Reveals How Kangana Took The Whole Credit

Recently, one of the most anticipated movies in recent times, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, made to the theatres. The movie had to face some serious obstacles and backlash, so it wasn’t an easy path for the movie to make it. The problems that the movie faced were the postponing of the release dates and the feud between the director of the movie and Kangana Ranaut. Sonu Sood, who was supposed to be featuring in the movie, had also left the project. The movie is directed by Krish, and we were all waiting for what Krish has to say about all that happened during the making of the movie, and finally, he has spoken.

In a recent interview that Krish took with entertainment portal, Krish disclosed that the actual problems came to play after the production was over. While Kangana worked on the sets of this movie, she also joined another project for a movie titled Mental Hai Kya. When she had returned, she put her mind out, saying that she felt empowered by other actors.

“I had finished my entire edit in June. I had completed all the reels and even given them for sound recording. Everybody even dubbed but not Kangana. She was shooting for Mental in London. She later said that she had a few small concerns. After a few days, she said that iskajyaadahai, uskajyaadahai, this girl is overpowering, that girl is overpowering. Then she came up with yeh change karnahai, woh change karnahai. She also said that Kamal Jain (producer) hadn’t liked the film.”, Krish said.

Krish told during the interview that he took Kangana seriously and he started to make some changes as she wanted but when Sonu Sood came to the scene, things took a turn.

He said “I agreed to make some changes. We decided we needed to shoot for an additional 6 days. Kangana was not required in that extra time. She suddenly rose to say that Sonu’s character should be killed at the interval point. This was completely against history. Sonu was playing an important antagonist, he had a beautiful arc in the story and we had shot with him beautifully for 35 days, Sadashiv (Sonu’s character) would have died in the film but just little before Laxmibai’s death.”

“Then I came away to Hyderabad to start with my next, the NTR biopic and I got a call that they were doing re-recordings on the film that I had made. Not over yet, the editor was changed. The editor who had worked with me was asked to leave.”, he added.

“A few days later, I got a call from Sonu. He wanted to know if I was directing the film further or not. I came to Mumbai to meet Kamal Jain. Kangana was present at the meeting. She said the changes were small and she would manage if I was busy. I came back to Hyderabad and got a call from Sonu that they were terminating his character at the interval. I told them that I won’t direct that change in Sonu’s role. Kamal Jain replied that Kangana will direct. Sonu told me that he wasn’t going ahead if I was not taking any further part…”, he added.

The director also took the side of Sonu. He felt that what Kangana did was completely obscene and was a complete disrespect. She should not have any changes in the film according to herself, without even the permission of the director.

Krish then added, “I don’t blame Sonu for quitting. His run time was 100 minutes and it was being chopped to 60 minutes. Who will agree? Nobody would.”

Krish also put forward his share of the movie. The movie which he was supposed to direct and had also completed the shooting of, he received only 30% share of the total movie. He also threw light on the fact that the budget had risen really high because there were unnecessary re-shots taken to make the movie the way Kangana wanted it to be.

The sad part is, Krish was not even given any credits for even a contribution to the movie, let alone making the entire movie by himself. The interviewer had asked Krish about the credits that he did not receive. Krish could not think of something other than what he said then. He said, “I don’t think how Kangana can sleep well by taking the first credit in direction when she does not deserve it.”

Now that the movie has come to the theatres, it completely depends upon how the public and the critics have to say about it and how they perceive the movie. Do you think that Kangana did the right thing by taking the matter into her hands or do you think that Krish should have been given the credits?