Kangana Ranaut hijacked ten years of my hard work: Ketan Mehta

Ketan Mehta, the creator of monumental epics  on such creatures of history as Mangal Pandey, Sardar Patel and Dashrath Manjhi ,was all set to start his career’s most ambitious bio-pic.

No one had attempted a film on the Rani Laxmibai(a k a Jhansi Ki Rani), the warrior queen who battled for her selfhood and country with a baby tied to ger back. Ketan was up for the challenge. He had penciled in Kangana Ranaut for the title role in Rani Of Jhansi: The Warrior Queen.

Then it all fell apart.

Ketan  is still trying to recover from the blow that Kangana dealt with his most ambitious dream. “Ten years of my research information data and creative inputs on the project …I had shared it all with her…how was I to know it would all be  vandalized so mercilessly? What she did was to hijack ten years of  my hard work,” says Ketan remarkably cool as he relives the nightmare.

Kangana translocated the  entire project to producer Kamal Jain and director Krish without Ketan Mehta’s knowledge or consent.

“In  February I  was in hospital for  a minor surgery. When I came out , I got to know of Kangana’s doing through the media. No, she did not inform me that she was not doing my film. As far I was concerned we were fully into pre-production just weeks away from going on the floors , when she did this,” says Ketan softly, still unable to fully process the enormity of the betrayal.

“On  how many levels is this unethical? It is ten years of my hard work  and research which I shared with her without hesitation as one would with an ally in a creative partnership. She just decided that she wanted to take my project to another producer Kamal Jain, thereby effectually sabotaging all my plans.”

Ketan says he already had a co-producer on  board. “Rani Of Jhansiwas planned as a English-Hindi bilingual with Gurinder Chadha as the British producer. It was going to  the first full-fledged  Indo-UK co-production .Where when and how  did Kamal Jain(who now produces the film) come into the picture? I’ve no clue. Only Kangana can answer that question.”

Ketan can only wonder at the levels of unscrupulousness revealed in the relocation of  his project to an unauthorized source. “It is a really lowdown thing to do. I had to take  legal recourse not because I wanted to stir up some action. But because it is important for  me to stand up now when so much of my reputation is at stake. She cannot do this. I don’t know what level of ambition  impels her to this level of unprofessionalism. But if I kept quiet about it I’d be encouraging an unsavoury practice.”

The brilliant filmmaker known the worldover for his masterly portrayal of oppression and women’s empowerment in  Mirch Masala  and Maya Memsaab now  faces the biggest challenge of his career.

“I’ve to prove to myself and to the audience that such  a setback won’t stop me from making my film. I will make Rani Of Jhansi . Maybe this incident  was meant as a warning that I was perhaps not going about it the right way .Now it’s time to gather all my inner strength and make  my film. I can’t allow Kangana to take away ten years of my life,” says the determined director.