Sonu Sood opens up on why he left Kangana Ranaut’s Manikarnika: ‘I was pained but didn’t say anything’

Sonu Sood has revisited the Manikarnika controversy in a new interview, revealing what made him leave the film after actor Kangana Ranaut took over as its director. Sonu, who was part of the film when it was being directed by Krish, has called the actor ‘his friend from many years’.

When asked why he left Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi after shooting for it, he said, “Kangana 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.”

In an interview with Barkha Dutt’s Mojo Story, he added that he spoke to the actor about how the situation stands, “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, while reacting to Kangana’s accusation of him not being ready to work under a female director, Sonu had replied, “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.”