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Manish Jha whose next titled The Legend of Michael Mishra will be hitting silver screen this Friday has entered Bollywood the long hard way. The director who has previously helmed Matrubhoomi and Anwar still feels bad about letting go off his pet project Mountain Man to Ketan Mehta.
For those who came in late, Manish had originally decided to make a film about Manjhi- The Mountain Man with Dhanush in the lead until Ketan Mehta entered the fray with the same subject. Manish and his then producer claimed that their idea had been stolen by a writer and sold to Ketan Mehta and the result gave rise to a legal war. Ultimately Manish bowed out allowing Ketan to make the film with Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the lead.
When asked why he conceded defeat without putting up a tough fight, Manish told Indian Express.com, “Every film is your dream. I was very close to the subject as I come from Bihar and had worked on it for two years. But you need a certain group of people to support you. As a director I was completely left alone. There wasn’t much support at that point of time from the industry. Also I was not quite active on social media then.”
Manish feels he fact that he is an outsider also ranked against him heavily making him a weak opponent.
“These guys have been around for a long time and they are powerful. Basically the idea is that they don’t like outsiders coming in. It’s very difficult for an outsider to break in. It’s not an easy thing. People who are already there they will not let you come in. I am an outsider and I have struggled my way up to become a director,” admitted Manish.
While Mountain Man may not have happened with Dhanush, Manish is still hopeful that an opportunity to collaborate with the talented Tamil actor will happen sometime in future.
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