When Bollywood director Karan Johar invited actor Kangana Ranaut to his celebrity talk show Koffee with Karan, little did he know that the 'Queen' would lash out at him and his career in Bollywood. In a recent episode of the talk show, Kangana called Johar the “flag-bearer of nepotism” and hinted that he was running a “movie mafia.”
Johar playfully veered away from the comments in the talk show only to retort a few days later. “I am done with Kangana playing the woman card and the victim card. I am done,” Johar said during a session with Anupama Chopra at the London School of Economics, India Forum. “You cannot be this victim at every given point of time who has this sad story to tell about how she has been terrorised by ‘bad Bollywood.’ If it is that way then leave,” he added.
The director went on to say: “I was gracious enough to not cut anything and let it be that way. I could have edited it as it was my show. I cut none of it. I said, ‘No, let the world listen to her opinion and she must voice it’ I gave her the platform,” reports PTI.
Did it end with that? Nope. Kangana who is not someone to back down (remember the Hrithik Roshan issue?), fired a fresh salvo against the Ae Dhil Hai Mushkil director saying that she was not playing the victim card, but the “badass card.”
In an interview to a newspaper, Kangana said, “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. It might not even land you a job, but it can get a pregnant woman who feels her water is about to break a ‘ladies’ seat on a crowded bus. It can be used as a cry for help when you sense a threat. The same goes for the ‘victim card’, which women like my sister, Rangoli, who is a victim of an acid attack, can use while fighting for justice in court.”
“I am not fighting Karan Johar, I am fighting male chauvinism. I used the badass card in his show,” said Kangana to Mumbai Mirror .
Kangana reiterated her nepotism statement, saying “Also, the Indian film industry is not a small studio given to Karan by his father when he was in his early 20s. 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.”
