As successful as the film Manikarnika was, the sets did seem to go through multiple ups and downs when director Krish quit followed by Sonu Sood leaving the project.
Talking to Barkha Dutt in an interview, Sood opened up about the REAL reason for his absence.
“Kangana Ranaut is a friend of mine from many years, and I don’t want to hurt her sentiments. But to talk about it, I will say that when we had shot for major portions of Manikarnika, I asked my director that we need to start shooting again and he said that he received an email saying that he is not going to be a part of the project anymore,” Sood states.
He continues explaining the mishaps that occurred as they shot, four months into the film. “She said that she wants to direct the film and wants me to support her. I said okay but we need to get him back on the set because he has worked really hard for the film but she denied saying that she wanted to continue directing. Then I asked her to send across rushes from the film and I saw that 80% of my scenes were chopped off and the scenes that I was narrated were not there. I spoke to Kangana again and she confessed as a friend that she wanted this to be shot in a certain way. So I told her that she is a great friend of mine but I’m not comfortable in shooting what she is asking me to do, I said an okay to the previous script and director but I would like to walk out of this project and I won’t even speak about it. I had given the film four months and had left a few projects. I felt a lot of grief, but didn’t say anything.”
Earlier, Kangana Ranaut alleged that Sonu Sood did not want to work under a ‘female director.’ Reacting to the claims, Sonu said, “That was not my statement. I never said that I don’t want to work with a female director because I have already done a movie with a female director (Farah Khan, Happy New Year). I only said I can’t be working with two directors on one set. So I will always maintain that stand and in a span of all these years, whatever films I have done, 80-90 movies, I have worked with one director at a time. So that is my stand and I will always stick to it.”
