Additional Chief Secretary of UP, Navneet Sehgal said that film actress Kangana Ranaut met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday who presented her ODOP products. Yogi said Kangana will be the brand ambassador of the ODOP scheme. She was also presented with an ODOP gift bag, as evident from visuals that have emerged from the meet.

The Yogi government has launched One District One Product (ODOP) scheme with an aim to encourage such indigenous and specialized products and crafts of UP that are not found anywhere else. The government says that Uttar Pradesh districts produce some products like chikankari, zari zardozi, kala namak rice etc which are found nowhere.

During the meeting, Kangana appreciated the work of the Yogi government in UP while Adityanath invited Kangana to Ayodhya to pay a visit to the holy land. “Ramchandra ki tarah tapaswee raja ka yahan raaj rahein (May the ‘king’ who is like Lord Ram be in power here),” Kangana said, wishing Adityanath luck for the upcoming elections.

Yogi Adityanath gifted Kangana the coin which was used at the bhumi pujan of the Ram Temple, Kangana said, sharing a video on Instagram. Talking about him, Kangana wrote, “He is exceptionally vibrant, genuine and motivating in person…. What a pleasure and privilege to have an audience with this young, fiery and one of the most loved and popular leaders of this nation.”

Kangana wrapped her Moradabad schedule of upcoming movie Tejas and landed in Lucknow, she posted on Instagram, updating her fans about the meeting scheduled between Kangana and Yogi Adityanath. Though the CM’s office called it a courtesy meet, soon after the meeting, the government announced Kangana as the brand ambassador of the government’s ODOP programme.

In December 2020, the court directed the Juhu police to conduct an inquiry into Javed Akhtar’s complaint after which criminal proceedings were initiated against her, and she was issued a summons in February this year.

Earlier this year, Kangana through her counsel Rizwan Siddiquee, challenged the defamation proceedings that were initiated against her, saying that the court had failed to apply its mind to the case. Mr Akhtar’s counsel Jay Bharadwaj, however, told the high court that the magistrate had directed the police inquiry after going through the lyricist’s complaint and excerpts of Kangana Ranaut’s interview, in which she had made the alleged defamatory comments.

Now, the Bombay High Court today has dismissed Ranaut’s plea filed seeking quashing of the criminal defamation proceedings initiated against her by a court in Mumbai based on lyricist Javed Akhtar’s complaint. High court judge, Justice Revati Mohite Dere, who had on September 1 reserved her order on the plea, said the applicant’s (Kangana Ranaut’s) petition “stands dismissed”.

On the professional front, Kangana Ranaut’s recent release ‘Thalaivii’ is garnering appreciation. Ms Ranaut will be next seen in an action entertainer ‘Dhaakad’. The actress has also started shooting for ‘Tejas’, wherein she plays the role of an air force officer. Kangana has also announced ‘Manikarnika Returns: The Legend Of Didda’ and political drama ‘Emergency’ as her upcoming movies.

The actor was recently on top of the world after watching her latest film Thalaivii recently. She made a statement calling it the ‘best film’ of her career, which has been decorated with multiple National Awards. She even penned her hopes of bringing back the audience to the theatres and giving them a visual treat in the form of her forthcoming release. “Thalaivi is a theatrical experience and hopefully Hindi multiplexes will also play it. I am confident it will bring audiences back to theatres,” she wrote on her Instagram stories. Other than her, Akshay Kumar has earlier too requested the reopening of cinemas for his film, ‘Bell Bottom’.

Last month, the Multiplex Association of India had appealed to the Maharashtra government to allow them to open cinemas, “Government of Maharashtra’s decision to keep cinemas closed is hugely disappointing news for the entire film industry. This comes at a crucial time when the industry has received permission to reopen from all major States and is trying to recover from the devastating pandemic. Urging @OfficeofUT to reconsider and allow Cinemas to reopen @AUThackeray,” they posted on social media. And now, they have again released an appealing request. See here :

That’s not all, Monday onwards, Thalaivii producers are holding multiple screenings for members of the Mumbai industry, which speaks volumes of their confidence in the film. Thalaivii is a multilingual biopic of actress-turned-politician J Jayalalithaa. Written by KV Vijayendra Prasad and cinematographed by Vishal Vittal, the film has music by GV Prakash. Apart from Kangana Ranaut and Arvind Swami in lead roles, Thalaivi also features Nassar, Bhagyashree, Samuthrakani, Madhu Bala, Prakash Raj, Jisshu Sengupta, and Poorna.

Lately, the theatre chain PVR refused to screen the movie until the makers ensure a four-week gap between its theatrical release and subsequent OTT run. After a long debate, the makers finally came to terms with the theatre chain and agreed to drop the film’s Telugu and Tamil version on OTT after a four-week-long gap. However, that is not happening with the Hindi version which will drop on Netflix after a two-week window. This is the reason the theatre chain had to take a hard stand against Thalaivii’s big-screen outing.

Opening up on this producer Vishnu Vardhan Induri said, “As a producer who has invested so much money in the film, I have the right to recover the investment. Every producer is trying various means [to stay afloat] — some are taking the direct-to-web route, others are waiting for a few more months. I can recover the cost only if there is a two-week window because, at this point, the box office won’t give me the returns that we would get earlier.” “If I opt for a four-week window [for the Hindi version], I will lose money and will land in a financial problem. I will never be able to make a film again. If I hold off the release and the third wave hits, I will lose out on seven months or so. Hence, the key people on the film have decided to go ahead with the September 10 release. Kangana stands by our decision”, he added.

Revisiting her recent multiplex and screen window controversy, ‘Thalaivii’ was recently not getting screens in both Hindi and down south areas. She publicly accused multiplexes including PVR and INOX of ganging up against her. Now, PVR cinemas have addressed her accusation with warmth and kindness and have managed to give Thalaivii, four weeks’ window down south. Yet, the issue persists on Hindi screens. Reason being, multiplexes following the government’s covid based regulations.

The actress has been using her official Instagram account for the promotions of the film and had recently slammed the photo-sharing website for ‘unprofessionalism’. She had penned, “Dear @instagram I need to add my film trailer link to my profile I am told my profile is verified so you own it now, even though I have earned and build this name and profile over many years but on insta I need your permission to add anything to my own name or profile. Your team in India tells me that they need to take permissions of their international bosses… it’s been one week feeling like a slave of bunch of white idiots….Change your East India Company attitude.” 

Apart from ‘Thalaivii’, Kangana will also be seen in an action entertainer ‘Dhaakad’. The actress has also started shooting for ‘Tejas’, wherein she plays the role of an air force officer. Kangana has also announced ‘Manikarnika Returns: The Legend Of Didda’ and political drama ‘Emergency’ as her upcoming movies.

Kangana in a recent IGTV video revealed how her film is not getting window screens, especially in the South Indian multiplexes. According to theatre contracts, multiplex needs to take a film for at least four weeks. But, according to her, in the Hindi region, she is getting at least two weeks’ windows but down south not even one. She has specifically called out ‘PVR Cinemas’ and ‘Inox Movies’.

She alleged that some multiplex is adhering and bootlicking the contracts signed with bigger studios who have already constrained their screens for themselves. Kangana later said that her producers have ditched better offers of releasing the film on a digital platform and that she wishes to support theatres saying, “We are theatre made people and now they are only destroying individual producers.”

“This is heartbreaking,” posted Ranaut in a series of posts on her Instagram. “No films are choosing theatres, very few and very brave like my producers @vishnuinduri @shaaileshrsingh are compromising on huge profits and letting go off exclusive streaming options only for the love of cinema.”

“In these times we must support each other and not bully or arm-twist; it’s our fundamental right to recover the cost of our film which we did, we may have two weeks window for Hindi version but for South, we have four weeks window yet multiplexes ganging up on us and stopping our release there as well,” Ranaut further added, calling it “unfair and cruel.” She also shared a video message :

Arvind Swami will be seen opposite Kangana in this biopic of actress-turned-politician, J Jayalalithaa. Thalaivi is written by KV Vijayendra Prasad and is produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shaailesh Singh. With music by GV Prakash and cinematography by Vishal Vittal, Thalaivi also features Nassar, Bhagyashree, Samuthrakani, Madhu Bala, Prakash Raj, Jisshu Sengupta, and Poorna.

The film is a bio pic on the life of actor-turned-politician J Jayalalithaa , while Kangana reveals that the theaters are “ganging up” against the film.

To her note in Instagram, Kangana wrote, “No films are choosing theatres. Very few and very brave like my producers @visfinienduri @shaaileshrsingM1 are compromising on huge profits and letting go off exclusive streaming options only for the love of cinema… in these times we must support each other and not bully or arm twist, it’s our fundamental right to recover the cost of our film which we did, we may have two weeks window for Hindi version but for south we have four weeks window yet multiplexes ganging up on us and stopping our release there as well —This is unfair and cruel in these testing times when major territories like Maharashtra are also shut —Please help each other in order to save theatres. (sic).”

Kangana shares screenshot of a news report where it was clearly seen her film Thalaivii wasn’t finding takers in multiplex chains on her Instagram stories.

The producer of the film Vishnuvardhan Induri says, “This happens. We are still negotiating with them, but we have to also make sure that we recover our investment. The theatre owners should support us because we are taking the risk of releasing the film in theatres despite the fact that as producers we have got returns from non-theatrical platforms.”

The film also stars Arvind Swami as M. G. Ramachandran Nassar as M. Karunanidhi, Bhagyashree as Sandhya, Samuthirakani as R. M. Veerappan, Raj Arjun as R. M. Veerappan, Madhu Bala as V. N. , Janaki Ramachandran, Jisshu Sengupta as Sobhan Babu, Thambi Ramaiah as M. Natarajan, Poorna as V. K. Sasikala, Flora Jacob as Indira Gandhi, Bharath Reddy, Vidya Pradeep, Shanmugarajan.

The buzz says that now the makers have decided to organize an event on 4th September in Chennai to launch the third and next Bharatanatyam song from the film. The film also features Arvind Swami as MGR who was Jaya’s inspiration, love interest, and mentor.

Today, the official video of the film’s second song ” Teri Aankhon Mein ” was released. The song is sung by Armaan Malik & Prajakta Shukre, Music by G.V Prakash Kumar, and the lyrics are penned by Irshad Kamil. This song will take you on a retro ride of the love and compassion of Amma’s acting days. Have a look :

Thalaivii is written by KV Vijayendra Prasad and is produced by Vishnu Vardhan Induri and Shaailesh Singh. Cinematographed by Vishal Vittal, film also features Nassar, Bhagyashree, Samuthrakani, Madhu Bala, Prakash Raj, Jisshu Sengupta, and Poorna. For more such updates from the entertainment world and around, keep a close tab on ‘The India Chron’.