Kangana Ranaut made her directorial debut with Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. Her upcoming films are Panga, Mental Hai Kya and Jayalalithaa biopic titled Thalaivi.

Kangana Ranaut turned a director in 2019 with Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. Though the film faced its own share of controversies, looks like it couldn’t deter Kangana from giving preference to her directorials. The star has now opted out of Anurag Basu’s upcoming film tentatively titled Imali to focus on her next directorial venture.

Kangana already has an array of films lined up including Mental Hai Kya, Panga and Jayalalithaa biopic Thalaivi. And amid all this, it was announced sometime back that she would be reuniting with Basu, who helmed her debut film Gangster. This would have been their third collaboration. She has now backed out of Imali due to certain constraints.

“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,” Kangana said in a statement.

“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 am 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 added.

Kangana, however, expressed hope of working with Anurag Basu soon. “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 have just delivered a Rs 100 crore film and it is the right time for me,” she said.

Kangana Ranaut is paired opposite her Queen co-star Rajkummar Rao in Mental Hai Kya, which is scheduled to release soon. Her Panga is being helmed by Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari.