Nayandeep Rakshit (DNA; November 1, 2018)

Earlier this year, Kangana Ranaut had to take over the reins of Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi and re-shoot several portions of the period drama, after director Krish Jagarlamudi left the project midway to start his South movie — the NTR biopic. Speculations were rife that the historical won’t be ready on time for its release. But the actress managed to complete the shoot successfully. Now, we hear the makers have requested her to finish the edit as well.

The footage of the entire movie needs to be edited for the first draft. Krish has reportedly told the makers that he won’t be available to do it. Says a source, “Krish called up the producers of Manikarnika and informed them that he would be unable to supervise the post-production work. He is busy finishing his South project, which is being planned as a two-part film. It’s become more of an ego tussle now with him releasing the second part of the NTR biopic on the same day as the historical.”

Kangana rises to the occasion
Our source reveals, “The action scenes, which have been shot and designed by Hollywood stunt director Nick Powell, are the only ones that have been retained. Kangana has directed almost 90-95 per cent of the movie’s drama portions in the 45-day schedule that was wrapped up recently. Despite the fracas, she never wanted to take the director’s credit. But with Krish orphaning the project, the makers returned to her to complete Manikarnika. She will have to take out time to work on the film on the edit table.”

The movie, which is slated to release on January 25, 2019, requires heavy VFX and post-production work. The Tanu Weds Manu actress had to make several adjustments in her date diary to shoulder this responsibility.

A source close to her tells us, “When the producers reached out to Kangana and told her about Krish’s unavailability, she requested the makers of her next, Panga (Ashwiny Iyer Tiwary and Fox Star Studios) to alter the dates of their schedule. The first shooting spell, which was supposed to be of 35 days, has now been reduced to 20 days. The plan was to roll the film on October 26 in Bhopal, but now, it will kickstart post Diwali. Once she starts shooting for Panga, Kangana will fly in and out of Mumbai to get Manikarnika ready in time.”