Probe against Kangana Ranaut on Manikarnika copyright issues closed

Kangana Ranaut

In a relief for actor Kangana Ranaut and producers of the film Manikarnika - The Queen of Jhansi, the Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has closed an inquiry into the complaint filed by director Ketan Mehta in 2017 that his script was used for the movie. According to EOW sources, as part of the inquiry conducted by the unit's general cheating department, all material related to the film was taken from Mehta and even the statements of various people were recorded.

The producers of the movie had also submitted their script and other material. The report recommending closure of the inquiry states everyone knows about the story of the Queen of Jhansi, as it's there in History textbooks and the allegations could only be proved if the dialogues, scenes and sets were the same as mentioned in Mehta's script, but in this case it wasn't. After the department asked for the closure, senior EOW officials approved it a couple of weeks ago.

Back in May 2017, Mehta had sent Ranaut a legal notice for "hijacking" his dream project on Rani Lakshmibai. He had alleged that he was in talks with Ranaut about his dream project for over a year. His complaint mentions that the actor had committed to doing the film but later backed out and announced her own project. A source close to Ranaut said, "We have won the case. Ketan claimed that we stole his script. We submitted ours and they closed the case." Repeated attempts to call Mehta went unanswered.

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