​Is ​Kangana Ranaut ‘s Pet Project Cursed?​

Will Kangana Ranaut’s dream of playing the Rani Of Jhansi  ever materialize? 

While Telugu cinema’s ace- director Krish says the film goes on the floors in July, sources in the know say the leading lady Kangana’s ongoing moral and legal skirmish with filmmaker Ketan Mehta over the creative rights on the material may cost the project its very existence.

Apparently Ketan Mehta is not in the mood to let go of  what he considers his creative property and Krish-Kangana’s plans to start shooting Manikarnika in July may not be a “feasible game plan.”

Says a source close to the development, “Ketan Mehta is not a  novice. He is a very well-informed filmmaker. He will fight Kanganaand her plans to take Rani Of Jhansi away intellectual rather than emotional heft.His latest salvo against Kangana, dragging her to theEconomic Offence Wing, is not  a hasty decision. Ketan is in this for the long haul.”

And why not?  He has spent six years researching on the Rani OfJhansi. Way back in 2007 he planned to make the Rani Of Jhansi withAishwarya Rai. This was right after she had turned down Mehta’sMangal Pandey where the director had offered her the role thatAmeesha Patel eventually did.

All seemed to work out until the budget played a villain and vamp.

In 2015 right after he completed his Dashrath Manjhi bio-pic The Mountain Man, Ketan Mehta revived the project with Kangana in board as the Rani Of Jhansi. All seemed to be going smoothly when  the actress simply decided to walk out of her commitment to Mehtaright into another project with a more affluent producer and a more pliable director.

Ketan  claims he will go ahead with his version of Rani Of Jhansi. Deepika Padukone and Radhika Apte are two strong contenders to play Mehta’s Rani Laxmibai a.k.a Rani Of Jhansi.

Sushmita Sen would  be more than slightly envious if either or both the above  Rani Of Jhansi projects helmed by Krish and/or KetanMehta, materialized. Sushmita spent three years researching, planning and preparing to play the Rani Of Jhansi.

I remember visiting her in 2007. She had turned an  entire fllor of herhighrise duplex into a creative war-zone populated by sundry academicians, research scholars , data collectors, costume designers…Hell, she was excited! She had  decided to turn producer  with her banner Tantra Films and she was practising horse-riding and sword-fencing for a role every Indian actress hankers to play.

But the project fell apart. The story of  her life….No one has been able to do a tenable Bollywood version of the Laxmibai saga  sinceSohrab Modi in 1956.

If Kangana Ranaut manages to overcome the various mindbogglinghurdles to finally see herself as the ultimate  warrior queen on screen she would go where many prominent actesses from Vyjanthimala toHema  Malini to Raakhee Gulzar to Sushmita Sen have dreamt of going.