Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; September 17, 2018)

Mirror had earlier reported (September 12) that Kangana Ranaut’s Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi is undergoing several changes since she took over the reins to complete patchwork on the film ahead of its Republic Day 2019 release. Now, we have learnt that Taher Shabbir, currently seen as Jennifer Winget’s fiancé in the daily soap Bepannah, has come on board to play the role of Sangram Singh, who joined the 1857 rebellion against the British and bested them several times.

A source from the film’s team says, “Taher is already good at horse-riding while his sword-fighting lessons have started with action director Nick Powell. He will begin filming for his portions at ND Studio in Karjat towards the month-end, after the team has wrapped up two songs — one featuring Kangana and Ankita Lokhande, which is currently being shot, and another one with the leading lady and her husband, played by Jisshu Sengupta, which will be filmed on September 18. Taher has a lot of scenes with Kangana.”

Taher told Mirror, “I’m very happy to be a part of the film, Kangana is like family.” He was quick to add that he would continue with the show. “It’s hectic but feels awesome!” he exclaimed.

Kangana is presently shooting climax scenes with Nick. Sonu Sood’s replacement as Sadashiv Narayan Rao, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, is also set to reshoot all the sequences featuring him and his screen wife, Swati Semwal, in the next few days.