The film 'Swatantrya Veer Savarkar' has been mired in controversies ever since it was announced. Veteran actor-filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar was earlier declared as the director of the project while Randeep Hooda was to play the titular role. However, things fell apart and within a few months, Manjrekar walked out and ended his association with the film.
Later, Randeep announced that he will be directing 'Swatantrya Veer Savarkar' and he is said to have even bankrolled some chunks for the film.
And after months of silence, Manjrekar has finally spoken up on what went down between Randeep and him, and went on to say that "someone played dirty" with him.
Mahesh Manjrekar claims Randeep Hooda interfered with script
In an interview with Bollywood Hungama, Manjrekar stated that while he was initially impressed with Randeep's research for his character, he later had to leave the project due to the actor's interference.
Manjrekar said that he had wanted to make the film for five years and it was he who approached producers Anand Pandit and Sandeep Singh, and that they together finalised Randeep as the lead. After the actor came on board, he raised some objections with the script, which were incorporated, but later, he continued interfering with the script, the filmmaker said.
"He wanted to incorporate Hitler, the King of England, the Prime Minister of England, etc. He wanted to incorporate Lokmanya Tilak’s ‘Swaraj is my birthright and I’ll get it’ episode. I wondered how all this matters to Savarkar’s biopic," Manjrekar stated.
'Randeep got too involved': Mahesh Manjrekar
Manjrekar went on to say that the actor got "too involved" in the film, and that "there was no room to reason out with him".
He said that after a point, Randeep began dictating how a scene should be shot and that is when Manjrekar decided to put his foot down.
"I met the producers. I told them ‘This film won’t be made if we both are a part of it. So, it’s either me or him in the film’. Maybe now they are realizing that they made a wrong decision," he said.
He added that while he has moved on from the incident, he is hurt because it seemed the actor had always planned to ease him out of the film slowly.
