With a promising trailer, Kangana Ranaut’s upcoming magnum opus Manikarnika is all set to release this year.
Produced by Zee Studios in association with Kamal Jain at a whopping budget, the film is directed by Radha Krishna, Jagari Amudi and Kangana Ranaut, which is scheduled for worldwide release on 25 January.
The excited actress-director Kangana Ranaut who plays Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi in the film said, “This film speaks about patriotism and sentiments of being a patriot. I feel more fortunate for getting to work in a film like this after a long journey in my career.”
She was at the launch of the Tamil version of the trailer held in Chennai on Friday. Speaking on the occasion, Kangana said, “I feel very much shameful to have not thought about taking up such projects and finally feel happy for it has happened. Of course, in this contemporary situation, the focus has predominantly been upon the men-women love, the physical nature of love or something involving an individual. Of course, being in a country that faces lots of crisis, such romantic quotients might look fresh for us on the big screens, but we can go beyond it and do certain things that are sentimental in nature,” Kangana said.
While speaking about her experience of shooting for action sequences, she added, “It was actually more challenging. When I started shooting, I was so fragile. Just imagine my skinny physique of 50 kgs weight and undoubtedly, I never looked like a warrior. In fact, I couldn’t practice the action scenes for more than 30 minutes. Precisely, the action choreographer and his team were little worried and doubtful, whether I would look convincing as a warrior for my stamina was very low. Gradually, I started gaining weight and with 10-12 hours of every practice, I managed to pull it off somewhat convincingly. The journey involving the galloping on horses, hand combat and sword fights, sometimes with original swords commuted me to a different world.”
When she was asked about juggling between the actor and director’s role, Kangana Ranaut opined, “It was not at allan easy experience. While it was all about the action sequences, it was handled by Krish (Radha Krishna) very well and I took over the dramatic episodes. Nonetheless, nothing got easy out there and it was a challenge of every moment.”
Further she said, “Usually, being an actor could be little relaxed as one can get back to the caravan and keep a regular watch on make-ups, but then with the directorial task, I had to keep running here and there, especially with those long sprawling costumes to have a run towards monitor was a huge task. By the end of the day, nothing seemed as a constraint and it was a wonderful experience. I had spent more time working in pre-production with lots and lots of discussions over the script. Personally, I felt that spending more time in this phase will eventually lessen your pressures and obstacles on the sets.”
Giving her personal comment of playing Rani Laxmibai, Kangana said, “Usually, it’s easy to play a character filled with weakness and flaws, but to take up the role of someone, who has lived and left foot prints of patriotism and love for the land, someone with a spiritual essence and golden heart sent me some uncomfortable waves by the initial phase, it demanded for lots of devotion, trust and faith, which is not easily available. I am happy and proud to have been a part of such a prestigious film.”