Kangana Ranaut announced the second installment of the 'Manikarnika' franchise 'Manikarnika Returns: The Legend of Didda' on the occasion of Makar Sankranti. The actress is also producing this film together with producer Kamal Jain. Well, the film hasn't gone to the pre-production stage yet but seems like makers are already in trouble. As the author of the book 'Didda - Kashmir Ki Yodha Rani', Ashish Kaul has accused the makers of blatantly violating his sole rights. He said that he has the exclusive copyrights to Didda's story and spent almost six years researching on the legend queen Didda.

On his allegations, producer Kamal Jain said that Copyrights are not required on the stories of great heroes who were alive before the era of 1950. He further mentioned that he brought the copyright of the Dhoni biopic but not for Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi.

But Ashish is stuck with his words and said that he has approached Kangana to write a foreword for the Hindi version of the book in September 2020 but never get any revert on the request.

Side-lining the controversy, Kangana is turning her successful film Manikarnika into a franchise. The second installment will be based on Kashmiri Queen Didda, who showed lionhearted courage against Mughal invader Mehmood Ghaznavi.

Didda, was the ruler of Kashmir from 980 CE to 1003 CE, first as a Regent for her son and various grandsons, and from 980 as sole ruler and monarch. Most knowledge relating to her is obtained from the Rajatarangini, a work written by Kalhana in the twelfth century.

She married the king of Kashmir, Ksemagupta, and united the kingdom of Lohara with that of her husband. Even prior to becoming Regent Didda had considerable influence in state affairs, and coins have been found which appear to show both her name and that of Ksemagupta.