Kangana Ranaut standing up for herself. I simply loved her work in films like Queen, Rangoon; even the outrageous Revolver Rani. I cheered lustily when she called out Bollywood nepotism. I have applauded her stand on women’s issues. For a long time, I thought of her as the badass outlier of Bollywood who stood up to the powers that be. In recent times, however, I have come to question her strident hostility and her zeal to pick up fights with all and sundry without provocation.
All through the public spats with the Roshans and the Sumans (the latter who made laughable claims of black magic) Ranaut had our solid support. The Roshans were being passive aggressive and the Sumans were just upset at her stellar success and their own lack thereof, we concluded. However, we continued to hear about these spats and soon lost interest (and sympathy it has to be said.)
More recently we had the Manikarnika row. Ranaut, who co-directed the movie was in the middle of an unseemly credit sharing disagreement. Critics also panned the film for being completely Ranaut-centric with all other characters reduced to nonentities. She then proceeded to attack Bollywood celebs for not promoting her film. She threatened them with her ‘wrath’ and warned that ‘no one would be spared’ for ‘ganging up’ on her. She asked actor Alia Bhatt to “grow a spine” and referred to her as "Karan Johar's puppet". This kind of playground verbiage sounds childish; even paranoid. Ranaut now seems to be eroding her goodwill not only in the film industry but also with audiences.
She then took on industry veteran Shabana Azmi quite without provocation. This came soon after Azmi refused to participate in a retrospective for her late father and poet Kaifi Azmi organised in Karachi following the Pulwama attacks. Ranaut called Azmi and her husband Javed Akhtar antinationals for accepting such an invitation in the first place. According to Ranaut the industry is fully of such antinationals “who boost enemies' morals (sic.)”. In response, Azmi said that Ranaut's words had no significance at a time when the entire country “stands as one in our grief and in condemning this dastardly Pulwama attack”. She added “May God bless her."
Now there is a new controversy in the news: reportedly, Ranaut has refused to shoot for the posters of her upcoming film Mental hai kya. Her prerequisite is that solo posters of herself be shot first.
We listened to the airing of grievances for a long time; we disagreed with Karan Johar when he said Ranaut is playing the ‘victim card’. She was an outsider, she had to claw her way to success, and we all admired her talent and grit and courage. However, she is no longer an outsider. She is a successful star with significant power and clout of her own in the Indian film industry. She now speaks from a position of authority and influence. It simply doesn’t cut any ice when she continues to portray herself as a powerless outsider who is discriminated against. In fact, she seems to have lost the charming vulnerability of her earlier roles and now comes across as belligerent and combative – in reel as well as real life. The humility of an artiste is a valuable asset; one she seems to have frittered away.
The fact is that the people are quickly running out of patience with her and what they see is her egoistical and self centred bombast. One has to wonder if all the bluster is just attention seeking or a deliberate ploy to create convenient controversy just before the launch of a film. As of now, Ranaut sends out the message that in her view, when she asks people to jump through hoops, the only thing they’ll say is how high. I think that may soon change to no thanks.
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