Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut is all set to return with the second installment of the Manikarnika franchise titled as The Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda.
On Thursday, Ranaut announced the film, which is touted to be bigger and better than the earlier film. The film will revolve around the life of Didda, Kashmir’s first woman ruler, who ruled for around five decades in the 10th and 11th centuries.
The actor has joined hands with Kamal Jain, who produced the first installment to take the real life women heroes franchise forward.The franchise is aimed to bring forgotten women heroes who have helped in forming the true identity of the country. The second installment will be mounted on international scale, according to the sources.
The new script has already been locked in a meeting with Kamal held last week. Ranaut will star in the film in the lead role. She will play the Queen of Kashmir, the greatest warrior who defeated Mehmood Ghaznavi twice in battle despite being suffering from polio in one leg.
The first part of franchise, Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, revolved around the life of Rani Lakshmi Bai. Ranaut played the main character, while Atul Kulkarni, Jisshu Sengupta, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Ankita Lokhande, and Vaibhav Tatwawaadi were part of the supporting cast. The film was jointly directed by Ranaut and Radha Krishna Jagarlamudi.
Released on January 25, 2019, the film opened to positive reviews and had the highest first day collection for any female-centric film. Not only in India, the film performed well internationally. The film was released worldwide in three languages, Hindi, Telugu and Tamil.
Meanwhile, Ranaut has planned to complete her ongoing commitments before commencing the shoot of Manikarnika Returns. Her upcoming movies include Dhaakad, Thalaivi and Tejas. She was last seen in Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s Panga, co-starring Richa Chaddha and Jassie Gill.