The Queen era has begun! In early April, mid-day told you that Kangana Ranaut is set to commence work on the sequel to her career-defining 2013 movie, Queen (Kangy in her Queen era, April 1). Sure enough, the actor kicked off the Vikas Bahl-directed movie in South Mumbai last week.
A still from ‘Queen’. Pic/Youtube
April was a hectic month for Ranaut, who dived into the prep for Queen 2 after wrapping up Bharat Bhagya Vidhata. A source revealed, “The team had just 20 days to prep. Now, they are shooting in and around Mumbai. The unit is currently filming in Grant Road, where a set depicting the protagonist’s home has been built.”
Vikas Bahl
Bahl — on triple duty as the writer, director, and co-producer — has apparently charted out a three-month start-to-finish schedule. With the shoot, Ranaut will juggle her political duties as a Member of Parliament from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. The source added, “In the last 10 days, Kangana has been flying in and out of the city to attend the Parliament sessions. There have been times when she went to Delhi for the day, came back in the night, and shot till the next morning.”
Hectic schedule or not, Ranaut has slipped seamlessly into the character of Rani. While the second part won’t be a continuation of the original, it will share the themes of self-discovery and self-reliance. “This time too, Rani is a small-town woman from North India, but her look is entirely different. The story traces how she comes into her own after a situation brings her to Mumbai.”