You need not make all the characters become what you want to believe you are
In the years since their 2017 collaboration on 'Simran,' director Hansal Mehta has arrived at a candid reckoning: working with Kangana Ranaut was, by his own admission, a massive mistake. The film slipped quietly past audiences, and Mehta now suggests the fracture began not in the editing room but on set itself, where creative alignment never took hold. His reflection speaks to a tension as old as filmmaking — that talent, however genuine, cannot substitute for the rarer alchemy of shared artistic vision.
- Mehta revealed that Ranaut effectively shaped what was filmed from the start, leaving no room for directorial authority to assert itself.
- The friction was not merely temperamental — Mehta describes a fundamental incompatibility that undermined the film before audiences ever had a chance to weigh in.
- Despite acknowledging her gifts as a performer, Mehta argues Ranaut limits herself by collapsing the distance between her own persona and every character she plays.
- His pointed reference to her 'Dhaakad' song 'She's on Fire' frames her recent work as a continuation of the same self-mythologizing pattern he found stifling on 'Simran.'
- Mehta has since moved forward, pairing with Kartik Aaryan on 'Captain India' — a signal that he is seeking collaborators whose creative instincts can meet his own.
Hansal Mehta has spent years quietly processing what went wrong with 'Simran,' the 2017 film starring Kangana Ranaut that arrived and departed without much notice. In a recent interview, he dispensed with diplomatic softening: the collaboration was a massive mistake.
He was careful to acknowledge her talent — that was never in question. But talent, he made clear, is not the same as compatibility. The friction on set ran deeper than ordinary creative disagreement. When asked whether Ranaut had seized control of the edit, Mehta offered a more unsettling answer: there was nothing left to take over, because the film had already been shaped around what she wanted to shoot in the first place.
For Mehta, the deeper problem was artistic rather than personal. Speaking to Mashable India, he argued that Ranaut has confined herself to a single kind of story — one in which she is always, essentially, the subject. He pointed to her 'Dhaakad' song 'She's on Fire' as a recent example of the same pattern: self-mythology dressed as character work. 'You need not make all the characters become what you want to believe you are,' he said.
Mehta was measured enough to acknowledge the limits of his own judgment. She is a big star. She is a good actor. But the partnership was, from his perspective, a fundamental mismatch — one whose consequences were visible long before audiences encountered the finished film. He has since moved on to 'Captain India' with Kartik Aaryan, a fresh collaboration that carries with it, one imagines, the lessons of a difficult one.
Hansal Mehta has spent the years since 'Simran' thinking about what went wrong. The 2017 film, which starred Kangana Ranaut in a lead role about a woman caught between two worlds, arrived quietly and departed the same way. Audiences didn't connect with it. Neither, it turns out, did its director and star.
In a recent interview, Mehta was direct about the experience: working with Ranaut was a mistake, he said—a massive one. He didn't soften the blow with preamble. Yes, he acknowledged, she's a talented actor. But talent alone doesn't make a collaboration work. On set, they simply didn't align. The friction ran deeper than the usual creative disagreements that mark any film production. When asked whether Ranaut had taken control of the edit, Mehta's answer was revealing: there was nothing left for her to take over because they had only filmed what she wanted to film in the first place.
The real issue, as Mehta saw it, wasn't about her abilities as a performer. It was about the narrowness of her choices as an artist. He told Mashable India that Ranaut has essentially confined herself to a single kind of story—the kind where she is the story. 'You need not make all the characters become what you want to believe you are,' he said, the frustration audible even in paraphrase. He pointed to her recent song from 'Dhaakad,' titled 'She's on Fire,' as an example: it was, in his view, another instance of her talking about herself rather than inhabiting a character separate from her own mythology.
Mehta was careful not to position himself as her critic-in-chief. He acknowledged the limits of his own authority to judge her choices. She's a big star. She's a good actor. But the partnership between them had been, from his vantage point, a fundamental mismatch. The film itself—which also featured Sohum Shah—never found its footing with viewers, and Mehta's candid assessment suggests the problems began long before audiences ever saw the finished product.
The remarks offer a window into a particular kind of Bollywood friction: the collision between a director's vision and an actor's gravitational pull toward self-preservation and self-promotion. It's a tension that rarely gets named so plainly. Mehta has since moved on. His next project pairs him with Kartik Aaryan on 'Captain India,' a fresh start with different collaborators and, presumably, a different dynamic. But his words about the Ranaut experience linger—a reminder that even when both parties are talented, sometimes the chemistry simply isn't there.
Notable Quotes
Working with Kangana was a massive mistake— Hansal Mehta
They didn't gel with each other on the sets, and only shot what she wanted to shoot— Hansal Mehta, on the production dynamic
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
When you say it was a massive mistake, are you talking about the film itself or the relationship?
Both, really. The film didn't work, but that's partly because we couldn't agree on what we were making. It felt like we were making two different movies.
You said she controlled what got shot. How does that actually happen on a professional set?
When an actor has enough leverage—and she did—they can shape the production around their comfort. It's not always explicit. It's in the choices about which takes to keep, which scenes matter, which character moments get time.
But you also said she's talented. So what's the real problem?
Talent and vision aren't the same thing. She's a skilled performer. But if every character you play is really just you in different costumes, you're not acting—you're performing yourself. That's limiting.
Do you think she sees it that way?
I don't know. I'm not in her head. But I know what I saw on set, and I know what ended up on screen. The film needed her to disappear into something else. She couldn't, or wouldn't.
Would you work with her again?
No. Life's too short, and there are too many other actors and stories to tell.