Kangana Ranaut walks out of Anurag Basu's 'Imali', says 'feel bad'
Kangana Ranaut and Anurag Basu.
Busy with back-to-back projects, Kangana Ranaut has opted out of Anurag Basu’s ‘Imali’ that she was supposed to start work on in November 2018.
The film was said to star Kangana with her previous co-star Rajkummar Rao and would have marked her third-time collaboration with the director after ‘Gangster’ and ‘Life in a Metro’.
Speaking on why ‘Imali’ had to be dropped, Kangana said, “Last year, when I announced Panga and Imali together, Anurag Basu’s film was supposed to go on floors in November 2018. But I had to direct and reshoot Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. So, I had to push Imali. I was also meaning to be a director for a while, so I couldn’t have said no to this. Meanwhile, Panga had already started and I couldn’t not do that.”
She currently has ‘Mental Hai Kya’, ‘Panga’ and the recently announced ‘Jayalalithaa biopic’.
On letting the film go she said, “Anurag and I have spoken about it. I feel extremely bad because ‘Imali’ was giving me an opportunity to work with my mentor again, but I’m on the verge of announcing my own film in a few weeks from now. That has taken a lot of my time and I have conveyed it to Anurag, who understood my situation.”
She continued, “We will work together at some point. Imali is a beautiful love story and we can do that later. But right now, my focus is on my next directorial venture because I’ve just delivered a Rs 100-crore film and it’s the right time for me.”