Manikarnika row: Apurva Asrani takes a sly dig at Kangana Ranaut's 'Hara-Kiri'

Mumbai: In an arcane tweet, Award winning screenwriter and editor Apurva Asrani slammed Kangana Ranaut for "hijacking a film" and described it as "the worst form of hara-kiri".

Without taking any name, Apurva's tweet addressed to the controversy surrounding upcoming historical film "Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi", which saw actor Sonu Sood exiting the project.

"A star hijacking a film and running down the hard work of crew member/s is the worst form of hara-kiri there is. When affected filmmakers cannot control this and instead put on a facade of a 'dignified silence', they allow a monstrous ego to go on a rampage and eventually kill the film," the "Aligarh" writer wrote.

As 'Manikarnika' director Krish became busy with another film, Kangana has stepped in to direct the patchwork of her magnum-opus drama.

The film is currently in news as actor Sonu Sood has walked out of it owing to his professional commitment towards Ranveer Singh starrer Simmba. However, Kangana hit back at him, claiming he left the movie as he "refused to work under a woman director".

In his response, the actor said even though Kangana is a good friend, making the entire issue about male chauvinism is "ridiculous".

"The gender of the director is not the issue, competence is," he said of his decision to quit the film.

Last year, Apurva had alleged that Kangana, who has been credited as additional dialogue and story writer in her last release "Simran", tried to discredit his work in public by saying that she developed the story with director Hansal Mehta from a one-line script.

Ms Ranaut, however, dismissed the claims.