The trailer of Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao-starrer Judgementall Hai Kya was recently launched by Kangana Ranaut, the film’s director Prakash Kovelamudi and writer Kanika Dhillon. The film reunites Kangana and Rajkummar after 2014’s Queen. The two play neighbours who both end up being suspected of murder. Kangana desperately tries to convince the cops that Rajkummar is not who he seems. He says she’s crazy. Thus begins a cat and mouse game where both characters are trying to one up each other.
Kangana revealed that she was initially reluctant to take on the film because she wasn’t a fan of thrillers. However, she says she was “blown away” when she read the script. “Usually actors take time to make up their mind but Kangana was so instinctive. Within the first half we knew that she would do it. She knows what she wants,” said the film’s writer Kanika Dhillon.
Kangana, who plays a voiceover artist called Bobby in the film, said she resonated with the role because she felt like it was similar to her own story. “I think there was a phase in my life when people openly tried to shame me and alleged that I was mentally unstable and was on medication. I answered those claims saying, “So what?” I wasn’t on any medication but even if I was, I wouldn’t be ashamed of it. When Kanika (Dhillon) narrated the story to me, I felt like it was my own story. I find being called mental a compliment or humiliating,” she said.
Speaking about her character, who seemingly lives with mental health issues, Kangana said that her role is an attempt to destigmatize mental illness. “I don’t think Kanika ever thought of her character as ‘mental’. When she sent the script to me, the film was called Bobby. We have always seen mainstream heroines who are happy and chirpy all the time. When they go to college, they are the most popular; every man wants to marry them; even at work, their boss falls in love with them. We don’t often see women who have their own mental health issues. Though she is dealing with a mental illness, she doesn’t make it a sob story or make herself pitiful. She goes about her life and even makes light of her condition,” she explained.
The film was originally titled Mental Hai Kya and has been renamed Judgementall Hai Kya following backlash from the Indian Psychiatric Society (IPS), which objected to the original title calling it discriminatory and stigmatising. Judgementall Hai Kya releases in theatres on 26 July.
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