Sonu Sood's exit from Kangana's Manikarnika reportedly due to scheduling conflict; Zeeshan Ayyub to replace actor

According to a DNA report, Sonu Sood's exit from Kangana Ranaut's period drama Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi was due to reasons of unavailability to complete patchwork scenes for the film. The report also adds that Zeeshan Ayyub, Ranaut's co-actor from Tanu Weds Manu, has been roped in to play the role of Sadashiv Narayan Rao.

The publication quoted a source saying, "Sonu is currently sporting a beard for Rohit Shetty’s Simmba and another South Indian project, while he sported only a moustachioed look for Manikarnika. Since we can’t wait for him to finish those films and then do our patch-work scenes, he graciously opted out as we need to complete the shoot at the earliest."It was previously reported that Sood walked out of the film because Ranaut had taken over to direct certain scenes and the actor did not want to work under a woman director. However, Sood in a statement had clarified that the gender of the director was not the issue."The gender of the director is not the issue, competence is. Let's not confuse the two. I've worked with Farah Khan, who's a competent woman director and Farah and I had a great professional equation and we are still best of friends. That's all I would like to say," Sonu said in a statement, reported PTI.