Days after Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan took on Kangana Ranaut at an international awards function in New York, Bollywood is in a state of shock, wondering why on earth did Karan decide to mock the actress so blatantly on stage.
A leading actress, who sat in one of the front rows at the event, said the whole skit on Kangana was a bolt from the blue.
“We were like ‘why is he doing this?’ Why make fun of Kangana at an international event? She is a National Award winning reputed actress with a solid fan base. So. okay, she made comments on nepotism that Karan did not like. It doesn’t give him the right to humiliate her on an international platform,” said the actress, an ‘outsider’ just like Kangana.
A prominent filmmaker, known to keep away from controversies, says ‘bitching’ is a part of the backroom culture in Bollywood. “If you go to a party at Karan’s or Shah Rukh’s, the entertainment is mimicking and ridiculing everyone from Lata Mangeshkar to Kangana Ranaut. Emboldened by success or whatever you may call it, Karan decided to bring the bitching out on a public platform. And it backfired.”
Apparently, Saif, who Kangana gave a tough time to during Rangoon, was game for some ‘light hearted fun’ at Kangana’s expense but Varun Dhawan was not comfortable with the idea.
“He went along with it only for Karan’s sake, and now his father, filmmaker David Dhawan is livid over the embarrassment caused by the Kangana-baiting. Varun is mortified,” says a source.
While public sympathy towards Kangana in the ongoing Kangana-Karan war has swung fully towards her after this incident, Kangana’s choices, as far as Bollywood is concerned seem to have narrowed further. Among the heroes that she can’t/won’t work with, we have Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik
Roshan, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan, Shahid Kapoor and Varun.
Not too many filmmakers in Mumbai are willing to work with her, either.
Even Hansal Mehta, who can’t stop singing her praises was up to his neck with her interference during the making of Simran, according to an informed source.
Incidentally, Kangana has announced her decision to turn director and has moved to the South to play the lead in the Krish-directed Telugu-Hindi bilingual historical biopic on the Rani of Jhansi.
Apparently, that too, we hear, is a severely troubled project, which shows no signs of taking off. Sigh!
