Choreographer to direct a classical number for actress; while another song, featuring Ankita Lokhande, is in the works
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 12, 2018)

Kangana Ranaut’s Republic Day release, Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi, is being majorly reshot with the actress taking over the reins, which has resulted in the budget reportedly ballooning to Rs 70 crore. Now, Mirror has learnt that she is set to shoot for a classical number with onscreen husband Jisshu Sengupta that will be choreographed by Saroj Khan.

“Saroj was brought on board recently for the special number which hints at the romance between Kangana and Jisshu’s characters. While rehearsals have been on since a few weeks now, the team starts shooting the song from September 18 for which a set has been created at Nitin Desai’s studio in Karjat,” a source close to the development informed, adding that the team is faced with the challenge of wrapping up the entire song shoot in just a day.

Mirror had earlier reported (August 20) that with director Krish busy with the NTR biopic, Kangana has taken over the reins to complete the patchwork with writers Vijayendra Prasad and Prasoon Joshi so that their film can keep its Republic Day date with the box-office next year. Soon after, Sonu Sood, who played Sadashiv Narayan Rao in the film, opted out citing unavailability of dates when he was summoned for the patchwork. He was subsequently replaced by Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub. Now, all the portions featuring Sonu and his screen wife, Swati Semwal, will be reshot in the coming days.

Kangana is presently shooting climax scenes with action director Nick Powell which will feature in the film’s upcoming teaser. Reportedly, there are also plans for another song in which Ankita Lokhande’s Jhalkaribai is seen celebrating the queen’s arrival. The song is scheduled to be shot over five days at ND Studio.


Jisshu Sengupta in the film; Ankita Lokhande as Jhalkaribai