Ankita Lokhande is currently receiving laurels for her portrayal of Yamunabai in Randeep Hooda’s Swatantrya Veer Savarkar. The actor is starring opposite Randeep in the epic-drama. In a recent interview with India Today, Ankita was accompanied by her close friend and producer Sandeep Ssingh. Sandeep spoke about how Ankita stepped in to his rescue at a very tough phase of his career. (Also read: Ankita Lokhande admits she can to do films for free: ‘Money is always secondary’)

Ankita Lokhande did not charge any money for Swatantra Veer Savarkar

Sandeep in his latest interview said, “When I was working with Mr Bhansali as a CEO and I was co-producing Ram-Leela, Bajirao Mastani, Mary Kom, Gabbar is Back and Rowdy Rathod, since that time I had a friend called Ankita who believed in me. In fact, she and Kangana were among the first people who told me that ‘you should be the director.’ She (Ankita) said that ‘Sandeep jab tum film banana to main hi acting karungi (whenever you make a movie, I’ll act in it)’. When I made Safed, I approached her but she couldn’t do the film. But whenever I was shooting, we were in touch.”

He further detailed the circumstances in which Ankita signed the film. Talking about their conversation, he said: “At the time I got Savarkar, nobody wanted to work with me because I had gone through a lot of media trial. I never told her that nobody wants to work with me. I wanted her to play Yamunabai in Savarkar. She said ‘I have one condition that I am not going to charge for this film. I can never charge any money from you for any role’. I said then you are in all my films.”

Swatantra Veer Savarkar is directed, co-written and co-produced by Randeep. It is also backed by Sandeep, Anand Pandit, Zee Studios and Yogesh Rahar. The movie also features Amit Sial, Rajesh Khera, Lokesh Mittal, Brajesh Jha, Santosh Ojha, Rahul Kulkarni, Mrinal Dutt, Sanjay Sharma, Sal Uusuf and others in crucial roles. The period-drama released on March 22 in Hindi and Marathi.

Entertainment! Entertainment! Entertainment! 🎞️🍿💃 Click to follow our Whatsapp Channel 📲 Your daily dose of gossip, films, shows, celebrities updates all in one place