Kangana Ranaut is upbeat about playing the queen of Jhansi, which she terms as “challenging”. Manikarnika will be released on January 25.

Bollywood actor-director Kangana Ranaut and producer Kamal Jain were recently in Chennai to promote their upcoming film Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, releasing worldwide on January 25.

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Producer Kamal Jain was all praise for Kangana. He said, “Being a young mother and a warrior, life of Rani Laxmi Bai was challenging. She fought against all odds, for example, the conflict she faced when the rebels reached Jhansi and so on. I feel fortunate for being a part of this film that has a wonderful story and a screenplay. I am sure nobody other than Kangana would have done justice to the character. She has breathed life into it. Her boundaries weren’t just confined to being an actor.”

Further, Kangana said, “Usually, it’s easy to play a character that is flawed, but to take up the role of someone who was a perfect woman, was not. I felt uncomfortable when I started shooting for the film because it needed so much faith, trust and devotion. When I signed Manikarnika, my first thought was ‘How come nobody has done a film on Rani Laxmi Bai yet?’ So, I consider it a sheer stroke of luck that I am doing it. We have also tried to keep the history as precise as possible.”

She added, “The film speaks about patriotism and touches upon the sentiments of being a true patriot. Of late, we have been exploring the physical nature of love in films, but with Manikarnika, we went beyond the usual angle — love between two individuals.”