Director Krish Jagarlamudi will officially announce his next directorial venture Manikarnika – The Queen of Jhansi in Varanasi today, along with lead actress Kangana Ranaut, and other members of the film’s team. The film is a biopic on Rani Jhansi Laxmibai, who was born in Varanasi in 1828.
The event will will have a 20-foot poster of Ranaut on display. A Ganga aarti will also be performed on the banks of the river Ganges in the evening. A press program will have the director, lead actress, producer, writer, and music composers interacting with the media at Kashi Ghat, Varanasi.
The film was originally announced as a Ketan Mehta directorial, but changed hands due to creative differences between Mehta and Ranaut. According to reports, Mehta wanted to make the film in English, something Ranaut did not agree with. Thus, eventually the team decided to hand over the biopic to a different studio and director.
Shankar-Ehsan-Loy, the musical trio consisting of Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani and Loy Mendonsa, who last collaborated on Rock On 2 last year, will compose the music for this film as well.
Poet and lyricist Prasoon Joshi is the writer of this biopic.
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Explaining why he chose the warrior queen’s birthplace for the announcement, Joshi told the Times of India, “I grew up in Uttar Pradesh and was fascinated with Rani Lakshmibai. I believe she and I have been searching for each other all these years and while the poem is about all that she stood for and is the soul of the film, it is not an eulogy. I’m still writing it but the last line will definitely read ‘ kab tak aise vaar sahoge ‘. I am meeting the composers on Tuesday for a jam session.”
Apart from writing the dialogues, he has also written all the songs in the film. Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Baahubali writer, KV Vijayendra Prasad has written the screenplay.
Krish, who recently directed Gautamiputra Satakarni and the Hindi film Gabbar Is Back (2015), is looking to release the film simultaneously in Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil.