Bollywood director Karan Johar may be the latest to turn against actor Kangana Ranaut, but he is definitely not the only one. Shekhar Suman, who has time and again voiced his hatred for Kangana, who is also the ex-girlfriend of his son Adhyayen, has some really harsh words to say to her after her fallout with Karan.
Speaking to Bollywood Life on March 9, Shekhar said Kangana should have the courage to come forward and accept her failure. “She should just keep her mouth shut, and let her work speak for herself. If you are a failure then you should have a dignity to come forward and say I have failed miserably. You don’t always have to shout on the rooftop and say what you have done. The best thing is to just be and keep your mouth shut,” he said.
He went on to invoke the ‘playing the victim card’ point raised by Karan recently. “I don’t like these weeping women and women who cry to everyone claiming that they were victimized, traumatized, agonized and all that. Otherwise when you are talking about equality, everybody is in the same line. But some women save their cards conveniently. You become a woman and a man according to your convenience. You say that you are the hero of the film and not the heroine. It is quite irritating to see these blubbering women who get all the support in the world from the internet. This is manufactured and fake feminism and beyond a point it is irritating. These women talk about their achievements and struggles, what the hell everyone is an achiever here,” he added.
On Star World’s Koffee With Karan on February 19, Kangana had called Karan “a snooty, flag-bearer of nepotism, who was intolerant to outsiders in the film industry.” She also hinted that he is running a ‘movie mafia’.
Incensed at Kangana’s comment, Karan finally revealed his side of the story during an event at the London School of Economics. “She was my guest and I had to hear what she had to say. She has a right to have an opinion. When she says ‘Flag bearer of Nepotism’, I just want to say her, I am glad she knows what it all means. I don’t think she has understood the entire meaning of the term. What is nepotism… am I working with my nieces, nephews, daughters, cousins? And what about those 15 filmmakers, who are not from the film industry, who I have launched and who did the movies. That we’re not going to talk about! Tarun Mansukhani, Puneet Malhotra, Shakun Batra, Shashank Khaitan… they all come from no film background. You give these people film careers and they have a platform to stand on and that’s the reverse of nepotism,” he said.
The 44-year-old filmmaker didn’t stop at this. He said, “I’m done with Kangana playing the woman and victim card. I am done! You cannot be this victim every time and have a sad story to tell about how you’ve been terrorised by the bad world of the industry … leave it.”
The filmmaker added that he could’ve chopped off that segment from the episode that was aired on TV, but chose to retain it. “I appreciate that she (Kangana) had a great perspective and point of view and everyone lauded her when she came on my show and ‘gave it off to Karan’ — according to what everyone said — and I am like, ‘Of course’, because I have been gracious enough to keep everything. I cut out none of it. I kept all of it, as it is. I could have edited so much out of it, as it’s my show. But I said, ‘No, let the world see this. This is her opinion, she must say it and voice it’. I gave her the platform.”
Kangana replied in an interview to Mumbai Mirror that she was playing the “badass card, not the victim or woman card”. “What is pertinent here is: why is Karan Johar trying to shame a woman for being a woman? What is this about the ‘woman card’ and the ‘victim card’? This kind of talk is demeaning to all women, particularly the vulnerable because they are the ones who really need to use them. The ‘woman card’ might not help you become a Wimbledon champ, or win you Olympic medals, or bag National awards.”
“I’m also a little surprised at the “graciousness” he says he displayed in choosing to not edit the jousty bits on the show. While I’d have blacklisted the channel if something like that had happened, let’s also remember that a channel wants TRPs, and he is just a paid host. Also, the Indian film industry is not a small studio given to Karan by his father when he was in his early 20s. That is just a small molecule. The industry belongs to every Indian and is highly recommended for outsiders like me whose parents were too poor to give me a formal training. I learnt on the job and got paid for it, using the money to educate myself in New York. He is nobody to tell me to leave it. I’m definitely not going anywhere, Mr Johar,” she added.
Shekhar Suman recently took a dig that seemed to be aimed at Kangana on Twitter when he felt it was poetic justice that Kangana’s latest film, Rangoon did not perform well at the box office. “One cocained actress was carrying the burden of her non existent stardom.She has fallen flat on her face n how.Guess this is poetic justice,” he had written.
Incensed at Kangana’s comment, Karan finally revealed his side of the story during an event at the London School of Economics. “She was my guest and I had to hear what she had to say. She has a right to have an opinion. When she says ‘Flag bearer of Nepotism’, I just want to say her, I am glad she knows what it all means. I don’t think she has understood the entire meaning of the term. What is nepotism… am I working with my nieces, nephews, daughters, cousins? And what about those 15 filmmakers, who are not from the film industry, who I have launched and who did the movies. That we’re not going to talk about! Tarun Mansukhani, Puneet Malhotra, Shakun Batra, Shashank Khaitan… they all come from no film background. You give these people film careers and they have a platform to stand on and that’s the reverse of nepotism,” he said.
The 44-year-old filmmaker didn’t stop at this. He said, “I’m done with Kangana playing the woman and victim card. I am done! You cannot be this victim every time and have a sad story to tell about how you’ve been terrorised by the bad world of the industry … leave it.”
The filmmaker added that he could’ve chopped off that segment from the episode that was aired on TV, but chose to retain it. “I appreciate that she (Kangana) had a great perspective and point of view and everyone lauded her when she came on my show and ‘gave it off to Karan’ — according to what everyone said — and I am like, ‘Of course’, because I have been gracious enough to keep everything. I cut out none of it. I kept all of it, as it is. I could have edited so much out of it, as it’s my show. But I said, ‘No, let the world see this. This is her opinion, she must say it and voice it’. I gave her the platform.”
Kangana replied in an interview to Mumbai Mirror that she was playing the “badass card, not the victim or woman card”. “What is pertinent here is: why is Karan Johar trying to shame a woman for being a woman? What is this about the ‘woman card’ and the ‘victim card’? This kind of talk is demeaning to all women, particularly the vulnerable because they are the ones who really need to use them. The ‘woman card’ might not help you become a Wimbledon champ, or win you Olympic medals, or bag National awards.”
“I’m also a little surprised at the “graciousness” he says he displayed in choosing to not edit the jousty bits on the show. While I’d have blacklisted the channel if something like that had happened, let’s also remember that a channel wants TRPs, and he is just a paid host. Also, the Indian film industry is not a small studio given to Karan by his father when he was in his early 20s. That is just a small molecule. The industry belongs to every Indian and is highly recommended for outsiders like me whose parents were too poor to give me a formal training. I learnt on the job and got paid for it, using the money to educate myself in New York. He is nobody to tell me to leave it. I’m definitely not going anywhere, Mr Johar,” she added.
Shekhar Suman recently took a dig that seemed to be aimed at Kangana on Twitter when he felt it was poetic justice that Kangana’s latest film, Rangoon did not perform well at the box office. “One cocained actress was carrying the burden of her non existent stardom.She has fallen flat on her face n how.Guess this is poetic justice,” he had written.
He posted another tweet on Thursday which again seems to be targeting Kangana:
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