Sonu Sood quit Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi the moment Kangana Ranaut took over the director's seat. The Queen actress reasoned that the Dabangg actor did not want to work under a woman director.
But that was not the reason for Sonu's exit.
Lambasting Kangana for her 'woman director' remark, Sonu revealed that the gender of the director was not an issue for him but competence was. Sonu has earlier happily worked under Farah Khan, a woman director, in Happy New Year.
"Let's not confuse the two. I've worked with Farah Khan [For Happy New Year] who's a competent woman director and Farah and I had a great professional equation and we are still best of friends. That's all I would like to say," Sonu told Pinkvilla.
Manikarnika's producer Kamal Jain too had commented on Sonu's exit, saying that the actor left the project on mutual agreement and denied having any grudges against him.
It is being said that Kangana's constant bullying on the sets led Sonu to angrily walk out of the project. Apparently, Kangana even wanted to chop down Sonu's role when she started directing the film.
"Why should I take direction from an actor in this film? I signed the film with Krish Jagarlamudi as director. If he isn't a part of the film, I don't want to be part of it either," Sonu was heard saying loudly in presence of Kangana.
Now that Sonu is no longer a part of the period drama, Kangana said that whatever portions they shot with the actor will be reshot and replaced with a new actor. The makers have approached Zeeshan Ayyub to step into the shoes of Sonu's role in the film. The character is of a Maratha commander-in-chief named Sadashivrao bhau, a rival to the throne who died in the third Battle of Panipat against Ahmed Shah Abdali.
