Kangana Ranaut opts out of Anurag Basu’s Imali: Want to take my directorial career further after Manikarnika

Kangana Ranaut was supposed to collaborate with Anurag Basu, the director of her debut film Gangster. But DNA  reports  the actress has opted out of Imali (tentative title) for what would have been the third collaboration between Kangana and Anurag. The film stars her Queen and Mental Hai Kya co-star Rajkummar Rao as the male lead.

The publication quotes the actress as saying that in 2018 she, had announced both Imali and Panga  as her two films in the next year. At the time, the shooting for Imali was to begin from November 2018. However, the re-shoot of Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi took up a lot of time for Kangana and since she wished to don the director’s hat, she could not abandon the project. At the same time, shooting for Panga had already begun and Ranaut could not leave that project either.

The jam-packed schedules have affected her choices as well. Kangana has now signed the Jayalalithaa biopic, that is supposed to go on floors in October. The actress will take up the project after she completes shooting Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s sports drama. Ranaut explains her exit, saying, “Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi has done very well, so I want to take my directorial career further. I can’t not direct now. I had signed the Jayalalithaa biopic because it’s a strong character and in sync with whatever I’m doing with regards to women empowerment.”

Kangana claims that rescheduling her dates and cancelling Imali was a difficult choice to make. Both Ranaut and Basu have had a discussion on this and since Kangana also plans to commence  her biopic in a while, she was unable to give time.