SSR’s Death: Kangana’s Game Plan
Kangana Ranaut is turning to be the messiah of the nepo-gang haters. But can she be trusted? Read our article to find out!
Kangana Ranaut has appeared in two videos since SSR’s death last Sunday. While on one end she has gained our respect for talking about issues no one dares to talk about, she has been outright silly when it comes to some things she speaks about.
Is Kangana crass? Or is this a carefully crafted image to gain the admiration of the masses who are infuriated over SSR’s death. Here is what we think
Kangana’s Entry
Kangana made her entry into Bollywood through films from the Bhatt camp. She starred in a string of hits. She was noticed for performances in Woh Lamhe, Gangster, Fashion, etc. All the movies had her playing a shattered character, or a drug addict, or should we rather say “psychotic” characters.
Then came the phase when she was seen in comedies like Double Dhamaal, Rascals, etc. She was later seen in Krrish3 as the antagonist. It was during this time, that she won people over with an interview. Never had people seen a Bollywood actress who was candid enough to admit that “she did bad films for money“. The interview video went viral. Kangana had gained the admiration of the country.
Kangana V Hrithik
But sometime post this interview came the Hrithik-Kangana scandal. Hrithik accused Kangana about her imagining their relationship & that they never had an affair. He sent her a legal notice. This infuriated Kangana no end. She went public with her allegations of Hrithik hiding their affair. Hrithik then went to the cops, & asked them to investigate. Both Kangana & Hrithik went on to give interviews against each other. Hrithik even handed over his laptop to prove his case. Kangana released pics of her with Hrithik, which Hrithik claimed were photoshopped. Hrithik’s ex-wife Suzanne, Farhan Akhtar too sided with him.
While one can never say with surety as to who is the guilty party, in this case, one thing was clear – it was Kangana who won the perception battle. Male superstars have long had a perception of womanizing & then not owning up to their affairs. Kangana being a woman & this perception of male stars worked in her favor. She became the fearless Kangana, the darling of feminists.
Before the Hrithik scandal happened, Kangana had already starred in Tanu Weds Manu -which was a women-oriented film. Her other films Shootout At Wadala, Once Upon A Time In Mumbai were also hits. But it was her Queen & Tanu Weds Manu Returns which established her as the Bollywood Queen. She was in direct competition with Deepika Padukone.
Kangana V Deepika
It was when Kangana took on Deepika publicly, that she started coming across as arrogant. Deepika Padukone, who won the Best Actress trophy at an awards ceremony for Happy New Year(and then you wonder why our award shows are a joke!) complimented Kangana for her stellar performance in queen. Instead of being touched by Deepika’s gesture, Kangana lashed out at Deepika for not messaging her about it! she said
I hope some day she would tell me in person what she feels about my work, I would appreciate that a lot more.
This wasn’t the only time Kangana would take potshots at Deepika several times, but Deepika always maintained a d dignified silence. But one has to admit, her attacks on Deepika for Chapaak was not totally uncalled for. Deepika making tik-tok videos asking people to try the Chapaak look was indeed insensitive & so was her act of siding with JNU students. While she has every right to support any ideology she believes in, Deepika’s support for the JNU students just a few days before Chapaak’s release angered the right-wing & the general populace of the country who wasted no time in calling her an opportunist. Kangana too did not miss this chance of attacking her rival
Kangana V Alia
While Kangana’s attacks on Deepika had some merit, her attacks on Alia Bhatt lacked logic. Everyone is aware that Alia is a way junior actress than Kangana.
But Kangana showed no mercy on Alia & called her performance in Gully Boy as “mediocre”. She also went on to say that it is embarrassing to the compared to Alia! While everyone is entitled to their opinions, Kangana publicly critiquing the performance of her junior & stating that she was embarrassed on being compared to her came across as arrogance.(click here to read the article)
But owing to Alia’ star kid status, coupled with Karan Johar – the poster boy for nepotism being her mentor meant Kangana Ranaut was unharmed.
Now just imagine if a star kid had said what Kangana dared to say about Alia. Aren’t laws, rules supposed to be equal for everyone? Don’t star kids deserve respect?
Alia responded to Kangana in a dignified manner. She even went on to send Kangana a bouquet of flowers upon her winning the Padmashri. But Kangana’s sister – Rangoli Chandel mocked Alia’s gesture.
Kangana V Salman
There were linkup rumors of Kangana & Salman Khan. This was shortly after her linkup rumors with the much-married Ajay Devgan(all of Bollywood is tainted, so it wouldn’t be right to attack Kangana’s character for having an affair with a married man. wish I had a penny for every time an actress had an affair with a married man!)
But in the last few years, Kangana has had quite a few run-ins with Salman. The most notable among them was their altercation on the sets of Bigg Boss, which was hosted by Salman. One has to admit, that Salman needed a dose of his own medicine & that we too enjoyed Kangana’s ready wit. Salman did continue to taunt Kangana, who was smart enough to maintain her composure in front of the box office king.
Kangana had previously attacked Salman during his “raped woman” remark during the release of Sultan. But they seemed to have buried the hatchet.
Kangana V Sonu Sood
The least talked about fight Kangana has been with was with Sonu Sood. It happened during the making of the Rani Laxmibai biopic. The movie was to be directed by Krish, but Kangana sacked him & took over the reins. Sonu couldn’t get along well with Kangana & quit the movie.
Kangana made baseless allegations against Sonu by claiming that Sonu had issues working with a lady director. Sonu reminded her how he had no issues with working Farah Khan for Happy New Year. He rightly asked to stop playing the victim card as per her convenience(click here to read the article)
Kangana V Karan Johar
But of all her fights, it is Karan Johar who has been Kangana’s favorite punching bag. Kangana went on Karan Johar’s show & called him out for his nepotism. While she could have done that during an interview or a press conference while promoting her movies, doing it on Karan’s show was a shrewd move as it got the maximum reportage.
Karan had gained a reputation for being the poster boy for nepotism in Bollywood & Kangana calling him out on his high TRP garnering show grabbed a lot of eyeballs.
Karan got back by making fun of Kangana at an awards show. But haters will tell you only this half of the story. They will not tell you that it was Kangana who started it.
Apart from these celebs, Kangana is rumored to not get along with Shahid Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan, Ashwini Iyer Tiwari, Mahesh Bhatt, Adhyayan Suman, Aditya Pancholi as well.
Kangana Is Not A Psycho
But if you think Kangana is a psycho. You are sadly mistaken. Her open letter to Saif who defended nepotism in the garb of apologizing to her for make a tone-deaf “nepotism rocks” joke at the aforementioned award show along with KJo & Varun won her a lot of fans(click here to read more)
While On Karan Johar’s show, she came across as rude for attacking the host, she was poised & charm personified on her interview with Anupam Kher.
It is very likely that Kangana has consciously been trying to cultivate a certain image for the sake of her career. She is very much aware of her acting prowess & wants to have highest brand recall when it comes to women-centric roles. She is very smart woman, with an agenda.
Kangana Is Just As Fake As Ever Other Celeb
But there are several reasons why her fight against nepotism, feminism & SSR’s death comes across as fake. Here is why
1) Kangana’s manager is Rangoli Chandel – her acid burn survivor sister who has no experience in managing celebs. Instead of hiring professionals for managing her career, she has hired her family member to manage her. If that is not nepotism then what is? A talent management employee’s(from a middle-class home) job was snatched by Kangana & given to her sister.
2) There are no clips that show Kangana Ranaut praising the performance of Sushant Singh Rajput when he was alive. In fact, it was Deepika Padukone who claimed in an interview that SSR was her favorite actor among the new lot.
3) Kangana has been attacking Karan Johar & the blind item culture. She attacks the media for gossiping about a celeb based solely on hearsay. But she herself is blaming Karan Johar for SSR’s suicide without having solid proof which links Karan Johar to SSR’s suicide. Is there any witness or evidence which clearly mentions that it was Karan Johar or YRF which was the reason behind SSR committing suicide? Is there any evidence to prove that SSR was out of work? Did SSR ever tell Kangana that he was depressed because of Karan Johar or the blind items published about him?
4) Kangana claims that her superhit films have been labeled as flops by the Bollywood cabal. Again false. Just like how one can bluff about their salaries beyond a point, producers or the media can’t bluff about a movie’s collections either. There are portals like boxofficeindia.com & trade magazines which give an accurate figure. There have been instances of producers overstating the figures but like the election commission of our country, these box office collections too can be relied upon. If rigging box office collections were so easy, Shahrukh Khan wouldn’t have starred in so many flops in the last few years. Hrithik Roshan, Ranbir Kapoor, Varun Dhawan, etc wouldn’t have ever gone through a rough patch. Above all Siddharth Malhotra’s movie would have been super hits (wink wink)
5) Apart from talking against nepotism, Kangana has done nothing concrete against nepotism. We can’t think of any outsider who got their first break in Bollywood thanks to Kangana. She has not introduced any actor the industry.
I have one question for Kangana’s supporters as well – If someone like Kangana, who has taken ‘Panga’ with almost everyone in Bollywood – which is notoriously male-dominated, where women have a short shelf life, is getting regular work, how is it possible that Sushant whose, Chichore was superhit could be out of work?
Bollywood mafia’s powers too are overstated. Watch this space for more info on the ‘Bollywood mafia’.
While it is widely accepted that Karan Johar & gang are bullies, isn’t accusing them of murder taking things too far? Isn’t Kangana wrong in adding fuel to the fire?
Edit: Lastly, we would want our readers to watch this video & see for themselves how she insulted TV star Ankita Lokhande
Is she worthy of being the leader of Bollywood outsiders? You decide.
What do you have to say? Please drop a comment or DM us on Instagram/Twitter.
P.S – Please counter us with facts if this article offended you. Please don’t label us a paid journo, just because we refused to be cowed down by the growing chorus against the Bollywood mafia.
Please Follow Us On
Instagram: @theopinionatedindian
Twitter: @dopinionatedin
Subscribe to Notifications
|