Bringing her Rani Lakshmibai biopic months after Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika, actor Devika Bhise argues her film is markedly different from Bollywood offering
Mohar Basu (MID-DAY; October 15, 2019)

When Kangana Ranaut was giving shape to Manikarnika - The Queen Of Jhansi last year, international actor Devika Bhise was simultaneously shooting for her Hollywood project, The Warrior Queen Of Jhansi. Nearly 10 months after Ranaut's period drama took the box office by storm, Bhise is now gearing up for the release of her rendition of Rani Lakshmibai, which has been directed by mother Swati Bhise. She emphasises that despite sharing the protagonist, the two movies have different plot points. "My film is about the East India Company and the politics around the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857. It gives the audience a feel of the many factors that come into play during times of chaos and war," explains Bhise, who was previously seen in The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016).

In 2014, Ketan Mehta had announced his passion project on the warrior queen with Ranaut in the lead. The actor, in 2017, exited the project and chose to front the K V Vijayendra Prasad-written Manikarnika instead, eventually co-directing the historical drama. Ask Bhise if she is anxious about presenting a story that has already been seen on the big screen, and she retorts, "There are many topics that can be revisited, time and again. Be it Steve Jobs or Bhagat Singh, they have had multiple movies made on them. Till last year, people would ask us which film is coming first. I hate the fact that women are constantly pitted against each other. This is why women can't rise in a male-dominated world. Why can't there be many portrayals of the same story? I haven't watched Manikarnika, but I am told it's a different rendition."