Simran: Producer talks about the ongoing Kangana Ranaut-Apurva Asrani feud

Writer Apurva Asrani had taken to social media earlier to say that Kangana Ranaut wasn’t being truthful about her contribution to the script for Simran

Another day, another Kangana Ranaut drama? This past week has been all about another controversy for the Queen star. Her latest film, Simran, hasn’t even released yet, and already there are issues between her and the film’s writer, Apurva Asrani. So, what is the real story behind this public feud? Producer for Simran, Sailesh Singh spoke to a leading and cleared the air, hopefully once and for all.

The issue began when Kangana Ranaut gave an interview with Mid-day, saying that when she was first offered the script for the movie, she decided to make some changes to it. In her own words, she had said, “When Hansal [Mehta, Simran director] came to me with the script of Simran, I was intrigued. It was essentially a dark, gritty crime thriller. Together we sat down and tweaked the script to make it a slice-of-life comedy. It is gracious of them to credit me as the writer for the film.”

However, soon after this interview was released, Apurva Asrani took to his Facebook page and in his fury, rubbished the claims made by Kangana. Part of his long post on Facebook, which you can READ HERE, states: “Ms Ranaut has been claiming in several interviews that Hansal Mehta, the director of Simran, approached her with just a one line screenplay of the film. She says that the story was dark & gritty thriller at that stage and that she herself developed it into a fun, light film.”

He goes on to say, “When they went to shoot the film, I heard stories about things transpiring on set. I would not like to go into that now… I was thrilled to see that it was exactly the story and screenplay that I had registered at the Film Writers’ Association. I noticed that Kangana had improvised many dialogues, and I thought those improvs were excellent; in keeping with the lines/thoughts I had written.”

“At no stage did I see this new narrative of theirs coming. It was only the day after I finished the first cut of the film that Hansal called me to meet. He informed me nervously that Kangana is turning director and therefore has demanded a co writer credit.”

Kangana Ranaut nor Hansal Mehta has commented on this ongoing controversy. However, producer Sailesh Singh did clarify the story, saying, “I have worked with Apurva on two of his biggest films – Shahid and Aligarh. Apurva has a legal document in his possession signed by all parties – Kangana, Hansal, the producers and himself – wherein he agrees to the credits given by us.”

Initially, Kangana was given the sole writing credits, while Apurva was supposed to get screenplay writing credits. Later it was decided that the writing credits would be shared. They also claim that there was a printing error in the poster for the movie, which will be corrected and re-issued. Singh continued, “I have conveyed this to Apurva. We could have chatted in person before he took this issue to social media. He seems to be doing this for publicity. If this is about him versus Kangana, I want to clarify that to please an actress, I’d have to pay her more. Why be unfair to him? Once the film hits screens, we will release the script online for the world to judge.”

Image Credit: Viral Bhayani