Guest Comment: Ugh Kangana Ranaut!
“I started from ‘B grade films’ and today I’m the number one actress of this country... whereas other actresses, whom you might call my contemporaries, they have had no growth in whatever platform they were launched... they are still there and have not risen to another platform.” – Kangana Ranaut
It's hilarious to me that Kangana Ranaut never talks about how her own choices and actions or the insidious effects of Bollywood's patriarchy affected her career while constantly (AND almost exclusively) slamming her female peers for having had it too easy, not being talented enough, or not supporting her.
- How often have you heard of Kangana supporting her female peers?
- Notice how she doesn't call out the men, even though she was blacklisted from movies by male co-stars whom she'd been associated with, male co-stars who are friends of the male actors she praises for "supporting her."
- Kangana has had a nine-year long career in spite of her bad choices and flops. Clearly the narrative of "People didn't want to hire me because I'm an outsider" is nonsense. Also, you know who managed to rise to the top without the Khans? Or constantly denigrating her female peers? Or even looking like a teenage model? Vidya Balan.
- I totally support a person's right to liaise with whomever she wants in service of whatever goals she has, but this whole "I've had no connections" business is false, non? Kangana was already with Aditya Pancholi (whose daughter she was friends with prior to dating him, if I remember reports from that time correctly) when she came into Bollywood, she went on to a protracted involvement with Ajay Devgn, she was the Bhatts' blue-eyed girl for quite a bit of time. I mean, all this is whatever, but when you take sly digs at other female actors for relying on men, maybe practise some self-examination first?
- Kangana was terrible in several of her films and, by her own account, not entirely professional on the sets of others. You know who's never been bad even in their bad films? Rani Mukerji. And Madhuri Dixit. And Sridevi. You know who's been a complete professional even while working on complete tripe? Aishwarya Rai. and Deepika Padukone. And Priyanka Chopra. You're not going to go anywhere good too quickly if you sign on to rubbish and then look down on the material.
Honestly, none of this would be a factor if she didn't constantly bash on other women in her attempts to self-mythologize. Everyone makes mistakes, and a very young person in a scary place like Bollywood will most likely slip up several times and, in the process, evolve. But Kangana is not interested in talking about other women with the compassion she shows her past (and present) self.
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