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Whatever she may feel, think or say about herself, Kangana Ranaut is at the end of the day a vulnerable outsider in the film industry. The way the mighty Karan Johar hit out at Kangana for her abrasive behaviour on his talk show goes to show what one of her leading men told me about her.
And I quote, “Everyone keeps quiet while she says what she has to say - not out of respect or fear but embarrassment. She has clearly misconstrued silence for acceptance and has continued to dig her grave among the film fraternity.”
Among the accusations that Kangana was impelled to spit out at Karan Johar on Koffee With Karan were allegations of him being the “flag-bearer of nepotism” and a “snob”. She also called him the “movie mafia”.
Karan Johar has now hit back saying if the film industry is such a bad place, Kangana should leave. He is right. You can’t constantly badmouth your workplace. After a point, it’s obscene.
Kangana has been going on with her anti-Bollywood tirade for some time now. Her self-worth shot up after she gave a hit in a women-empowered film Queen. That this was followed quickly by the complete collapse of another Kangana-centric-starrer Revolver Rani was completely ignored. The film industry decided to demonstrate its generosity of heart towards this audaciously outspoken mercurial actress.
Lamentably, the more the industry celebrated Kangana’s free-spirited nature, the more emboldened she was to make impolite comments against any and everyone, from Deepika Padukone to Hrithik Roshan. Matters have come to a point where a large number of the film industry’s top-notchers, from Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan (both of whom swore off working with her during the making of David Dhawan’s Rascals) to …well… Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor (her Rangoon co-stars), are disinclined to work with Kangana.
Karan Johar’s criticism is a hard blow for Kangana’s self-positioning in the entertainment industry. Karan’s voice holds weight and he is known not to lose his cool easily against anyone. That he has chosen to speak out against Kangana is being seen in the film industry as a collective groan of exasperation against her constant carping.
Significantly Karan Johar has spoken out against Kangana at a time when she is mourning (the colossal failure of her latest film) and he is celebrating (his fatherhood). It is a crippling blow, but not fatal. Kangana is way too talented and self-willed to be daunted by collective isolation. She may not have any A-list heroes clamouring to work with her. But she will make her presence felt in a free-falling hurl of self-assertion.
You can’t write her off. She won’t let you.
(The love of Lata Mangeshkar 's voice and Hindi movies - in that order - has propelled Subhash K Jha to the pursuit of journalism for over 30 years.)
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