Kangana shouldn't be treated as a beacon of feminism.She is a bully

Now here's where the actual grey area lies: while Ranaut, in an interview with HuffPost India, said that the divorced housekeeper angle and her character's conflict with her father in the film were introduced by her, Asrani entirely counters this, saying those were his inputs.

He told HuffPost, "The divorce angle comes from my sister. Making her Gujju is my idea. Her family drama comes from my life. Yes, Hansal named her, but her profession he and I came up with together."

HANSAL AND KANGANA'S ATLANTA FALLOUT

Within days of the shoot, Mehta and Ranaut are believed to have had serious disagreements, sources told HuffPost. It's a fact that none of them have yet addressed. On the contrary, the two of them have projected an image of calm, something that leads one to believe they have had a healthy collaboration.

Back in Atlanta, shooting was reportedly suspended due to their constant arguments. Mehta's son Jai was flown in to take charge of the situation, as he and Ranaut couldn't see eye-to-eye on several aspects of the film. Sources who worked on the film told HuffPost, Mehta was fed up with Ranaut taking charge on set. Apparently, at one point Ranaut even ended up directing other actors in a scene a fact confirmed to this writer by two different sources associated with the film.

After a point, Mehta stopped coming on the sets altogether.

Messages accessed by this writer indicate that Ranaut was fed up of the "drama" and even called her director a "coward," who abandoned his film's set, in her conversations with Asrani.

On March 8, Kangana wrote to Apurva: "I am done with a clueless and a spineless director. I am done with his selfish team. Skilled director left the film sighting gender bias issues, according to him he can't handle a woman calling the shots, he was always told he'll have to collaborate, on the other hand he encouraged me calling himself a feminist, then what happened to a feminist director?

Ranaut further told Asrani that if Mehta had a 'name to save' he wouldn't have abandoned his crew on a Rs 30 cr. set. "Truth is money came on my name. I proudly took the charge and directed the film with my head injury. Didn't say let's go back because the director has ran away," she allegedly wrote.

However, by this point, sources say that Mehta and Ranaut had stopped talking altogether. And Ranaut was determined in her resolve to secure the co-writer's credit. According to Asrani, Mehta returned from the US looking like a "defeated man".

Asrani alleges that Ranaut and her producer friend, Shailendra Singh, even tried to give him "extra money" so that he signs off papers that'd allow the makers to credit Kangana as the co-writer.

Asrani says he considered the offer but finally refused.

According to him, Ranaut refused to shoot the Mumbai bit until the credits were in place. Since Asrani didn't agree on the actor's co-writer demand, they finally, grudgingly, agreed on an 'additional story' credit..

He told HuffPost, "I have fought to retain my credit because it's my story. What Ranaut did, irrespective of her claims, is what all good artists do. She added value to what I had already written. But the way she's played this narrative of dismissing my work and questioning my credibility as a writer is nothing short of character assassination. It has hurt me and my reputation. All I want to say is that people shouldn't take her at face value they should question her. She shouldn't just be treated as a beacon of feminism. There is a lot of duplicity, lot of lies, lots of false allegations. I want people to see her for what she is, not what she projects herself to be," he says.

On his feelings about Mehta, Asrani says: "I can't say how I'm feeling. It's a mix of hurt, love and understanding. I had thought he'd have my back when I stood upto her. Wish he had stood upto the bully too.

And what does he feel about the film? "I sincerely hope it does well."