'Manikarnika..' actor Mishti Chakravarty on her role being cut down in Kangana-starrer: I was hurt

Agencies
February 1, 2019

Mumbai, Feb 1: Mishti Chakravarty, who was seen in Kangana Ranaut-starrer 'Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi', Thursday said she was hurt after watching the film as her role was cut down. Mishti played the role of Kashibai in the period-drama film that has minted over Rs 50 crore at the box office.

In a recent interview to a portal, Mishti had slammed Kangana, who took over the direction from Krishna Jagarlamudi that has led to a controversy over credits, for chopping of her role.

"I was hurt. Whenever you sign a film, you are told this is what you would be doing in the film. But you realise you are not doing anything. This is a lie and that too someone tricks you into giving them extra dates so that they can cut the previously shot scenes. That's very wrong," Mishti said at an event here.

The actor said she had signed on the dotted line when Jagarlamudi, also known as Krish, was involved with the film but things changed after Kangana took over.

Mishti said artistes are known to be narcissists but a director should be neutral.

"... A director should always be neutral, he or she cannot be biased about anything and for him or her, every aspect is important. A real director can never be self- obsessed. The director has to be fair to everyone," she said at the launch of her single.

"There are times when we shoot for over 100 days but not all is retained. So, obviously a little bit would be cut. But if you unnecessarily, just to glorify yourself, diminish other people's characters, that's very wrong. No sensible artiste would do that," she added.

Mishti, who has not spoken to Kangana over the issue, said she came to know about her role being cut down only after the screening of the film.

Kangana has maintained that she stepped in to save the film after director Krish left it midway, a claim denied by the director.

Krish has said that he had almost completed the film and only patchwork was left when Kangana became involved and wrongly claimed the credit as the main director.

Mishti said Krish and other team members have started speaking about it after the release because they did not want to hurt the film's chances at the box office.

"The director was earlier quiet to not let anything affect the film. The same thing was followed by other people in the film," she added.

According to Mishti, Krish has been getting calls from everywhere so he decided to speak up now.

"The truth, which I know and I believe 90 per cent of the people know, is that the director completed the film. I was there till the end so I know who shot how much.

"The whole film was completed and then he told Kangana and producers that he needed to sign a film in South, which was NTR biopic, and after he would be done shooting that he would come back for patchwork, whatever was left."

As per Mishti, the director wanted to come back and complete the patchwork on 'Manikarnika...' but then it was decided that the film would be presented in a different way and he "wasn't welcomed back".

"I am neither blaming anyone, nor commenting on someone's ego. I am just telling everyone what transpired. Whatever you guys have known so far, a lot in it is wrong," she said.

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News Network
July 20,2020

New Delhi, Jul 20: On the occasion of International Chess Day, former Miss World and actor Manushi Chhillar enjoyed a game of chess with her father Dr Mitra Basu Chhillar and revealed through an Instagram post that she is a "competitive" board game player.

The 23-year-old actor posted a picture of herself and her dad on Instagram where the two are seen deeply concentrating on the game.

"I'm the competitive one, he's the mind reader. Irrespective of who loses, I know he always wins!#InternationalChessDay."

Further elaborating on the importance of playing chess, Manushi who once pursued a career in medicine stressed that chess helps in stretching the human mind in terms of strategy and imagination.

"Chess stretches your mind in terms of strategy and imagination because you really have to outwit your opponent at any cost. 

Playing chess with my dad is something that I have always loved doing because he's the most unpredictable, intelligent, and sharpest person I've ever played with," said Chhillar.

The 23-year-old actor is gearing up for her debut in Yash Raj Films' 'Prithviraj' where she will be seen opposite actor Akshay Kumar.

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News Network
January 23,2020

Jan 23: Calling himself an optimist who believes in the goodness of people, director Kabir Khan says everything these days is being looked at through the prism of religion but India is about more than that.

The director of blockbusters such as Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Ek Tha Tiger said he is happy he has a platform as a filmmaker to present a counterpoint to the prevailing narrative based on religious fault lines.

"I’m an optimist who believes in the goodness of the people. But yes, there is a certain level of bigotry that has crept in. Everything is being looked at through the prism of religion but India is not about that.

"It sounds like a cliché but when I was growing up, I was not aware of my religion. That was the greatness of this country,” Kabir told news agency.

He said he is a product of a mixed marriage and is pained to see the social fabric being tattered.

“I have celebrated the best that Indian secularism has to offer. But to see the greatness of this country being simplified and broken down into religious fault lines is a painful experience,” he added.

According to Kabir, it is dangerous to see history through the prism of religion, whether in cinema or society. But it is important to revisit history to know what happened and one can always find something that is relevant for the present, he said.

The director, who started as a documentary filmmaker, returns to his roots for a five-episode series on Subhas Chandra Bose's Indian National Army, The Forgotten Army: Azaadi Ke Liye, on Amazon Prime, his most expensive project yet.

Asked whether this is a difficult time for filmmakers, Kabir said he believes art thrives in the time of strife and, as a storyteller, his politics will always reflect in his work.

“Every film has its politics and every filmmaker has to reflect his or her politics. Every film of mine will reflect my politics and it will never change according to the popular mood of the audience. But a film should not be just about that. Politics should be in the layers beneath," he said.

He terms his 2015 Salman Khan-starrer Bajrangi Bhaijaan an "extremely political" film. At face value, it can also be enjoyed as the story of a mute Pakistani girl who drifts into India and is taken back to her homeland by a Hanuman devotee. But there is so much more. The "chicken song", for instance, was a sly reference to the beef ban controversy at the time, he said.

"I won’t say it is a difficult time for me as a filmmaker. It is good that I have a platform where I can talk and present a counterpoint and I refuse to believe that the entire country believes the narrative that is being sent out. There are millions and millions of people, and perhaps the majority, that does not believe. And if I present the counterpoint, they will think about it.”

Discussing his new series, the director said it has always fascinated him that the sacrifice of the men and women who comprised the INA is just a forgotten footnote in history.

“I wanted to make something that stands the test of time. It goes down in posterity,” Khan, who first explored the subject in a Doordarshan documentary 20 years ago, said.

For the documentary, he traveled with former INA officers Captain Lakshmi Sahgal and Captain Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon from Singapore to India via erstwhile Burma, retracing the route that the INA followed.

“The documentary got me a lot of attention and acclaim but the story just never left me. It's actually the first script I ever wrote and I landed up with that script in Bombay from Delhi. I realised very soon that nobody's going to give me a budget of this size to make my first film.

"And then after every film, I would pick up the script and say, ‘Okay, this is the one I want to make’, because this is the story that made me want to become a filmmaker. On the way, I ended up making eight other films but this is really the story that I wanted to make,” he said.

Kabir is happy that the story has come out as a series, not a film, as it would have required to compromise with the budget and other elements.

"Without giving any numbers, this is the most expensive project I have ever worked on… It required that kind of budget."

Kabir believes the INA was responsible for bringing down the morale of the British establishment, which realised it would be impossible to keep the country colonised without the support of the local army.

"There are a lot of debates and discussions about what happened with the INA and the controversies around it. The whole point is that, if you want to judge what the Army did, sure that's your prerogative, but at least get to know what they did. Nobody knows what happened with the Army from 1942 to 1945."

He added that 55,000 men and women of the INA fought for independence and 47,000 of them died.

"Not a single person from that Army was ever taken back into the independent Army, which is such an amazing fact... the fact that the British called them traitors became the narrative and we also started assuming that they were traitors."

"They were the only women's regiment in the whole world 70 years ago. That's what they thought about women's importance in society. I don't know whether they will be happy with what the current situation is," he said.

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News Network
May 26,2020

Washington, May 26: Making a slight change to the name of their newborn, Tesla CEO Elon Musk and his singer girlfriend Grimes have now named their first child X AE A-Xii.

The difference is only in the numeral part of the name which is now written in the Roman format.

Earlier this month, the celebrity couple hogged headlines for naming their son X AE A-12.

The change in the name came when an Instagram follower of the Canadian singer asked if she had considered changing the name of the child and she replied with, "X AE A-Xii."

However, the performer didn't provide further insight concerning the reason behind the change.

Canadian singer Grimes gave birth to her first child on May 4.

The 32-year-old had earlier taken to Twitter and explained the meaning of the baby's name.  

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