As many among us know, one of Bollywood's most controversial leading ladies in recent times, Kangana Ranaut, is scheduled to speak at Harvard in the February of 2018. She will be speaking on 'The Changing Landscape Of Entertainment in India' and 'Disrupting the Indian Mainstream Cinema'. Befitting. Because if there's one thing Kangana has done, and will always be remembered for, it is disruption. Be it for her infamously pointed comments about nepotism on the Koffee With Karan episode that will go down in the show's history as one of its most awkward and explosive ones; or her blunt, if somewhat discredited, admissions about trysts with married men in Bollywood, Kangana has a knack of making and staying in the headlines no matter what the box office says about her. While each year she gives her haters and supporters even more reason to be divided in their opinion of her, 2017 is going to be a difficult year to top, even for Kangana. Here's us, looking back at the very, very, very eventful year that Kangana's had.
Continuing in the vein of 2016, this year, too, controversy was Kangana's constant companion. In February, she ruffled several feathers in Bollywood with her brutal honesty while talking about the industry's nepotism problem and how it treated outsiders. Watching Karan Johar squirm as he was called the "flag-bearer of nepotism" on his own show was pure television gold. While Johar laughed clumsily on the show, a month later, at an event at the London School of Economics, he made his displeasure known by accusing Kangana of playing the "woman card" and the "victim card". The war of words between Kangana and Karan continued further, when in response to his "victim card" comment, she decimated his statement with an acerbic point-by-point takedown of his "graciousness" in not editing out the portions unflattering to him on the show, "giving her a platform" to voice her opinion, and finally, his advice to her to leave the industry if she had so many problems with it.
The nepotism debate was revived, once again, in July, thanks to an ill-timed, tone-deaf comic bit at the IIFA awards in New York, where Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan happily celebrate nepotism while taking a dig at Kangana. Their "joke" received a lot of flak on Twitter, prompting Varun Dhawan to apologise on the social media platform. Karan Johar too admitted that he had been "ungraceful" towards Kangana with the joke. Saif, on the other hand, penned a rather confusing non-apology of an open letter, explaining that chanting "nepotism rocks" was a joke, not something he believed in. Kangana, once again, silenced Saif, with a much more thoughtful letter of her own, talking about creative values and how they belong to the public, not an individual.
Even as the nepotism controversy brewed on the side, Kangana was embroiled in another exchange of barbs, this time, with her Rangoon co-star Shahid Kapoor. According to reports, their working relationship turned sour due to Kangana's heavy-handed behaviour while filming the movie and constant interference in creative decisions. While promoting the film, Kangana alluded to the coolness between the two by calling her other co-star, Saif, her friend, while maintaining that Shahid and she were not "pally", but that didn't mean there was something wrong between them. Apparently, her comments about sharing a cottage with Shahid being a "nightmare" and that she found it "disgusting" to kiss him, incensed him so much that he refused to give interviews with her and, finally, by saying that he was no longer going to comment or react to any of her statements.
After being riddled with controversies through its promotions, Rangoon finally released at the end of February, but failed to make a noticeable impression on the box office.
May brought with it two fresh rounds of controversies, both related to intellectual thievery and fighting over credits. First, Simran writer Apurva Asrani, in a long Facebook post, accused Kangana of exaggerating her contribution in developing the dialogues and story of the film. His outburst was sparked by the fact that his writing credit was pushed below Kangana's 'additional dialogue and story' credit. Within days of this, director Ketan Mehta sent a legal notice to Kangana, claiming that she had stolen the creative material for his project, Rani Of Jhansi - The Warrior Queen. According to Mehta, Kangana had committed to doing the project with him and his team, following which they had shared visual references and several drafts of the script with her. And then, suddenly, out of the blue, he had found out that she had launched Manikarnika - The Queen Of Jhansi with a different set of people, using their story.
Here is the official poster of our film #Simranpic.twitter.com/hZQVwfW87u
- Shaailesh R Singh (@ShaileshRSingh) May 14, 2017
Kangana rubbished the claims, saying that there was no similarities in the two stories and that everyone was free to make their own movie on a historical character like Rani Lakshmibai. She dismissed Asrani's claims too, saying that he had a history of piggy-backing on other people's hard work and trying to take credit for stories he hadn't written. Eventually, the credits on the poster were changed, and Asrani received top billing as story, screenplay and dialogues writer.
Through September, in the run-up to Simran's release, Kangana gave a series of interviews -- two sensational ones with Barkha Dutt and Rajat Sharma, and two slightly less explosive with Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra. In the interviews, she addressed, with great candour, questions about her relationships with the much-married Aditya Pancholi, how he would beat her up, and how his wife, actress Zarina Wahab, refused to help her when she approached her for help; the black magic allegations made against her by Adhyayan Suman; her ongoing legal battle with Hrithik Roshan, and how she was turned away by the Women's Commission when she reached out to them, on the behest of Rakesh Roshan.
The result of her frankness was that Pancholi called her a "mad woman' and threatened to take legal action against her, while Hrithik's ex wife Sussanne Roshan came out in support of him, once again. Adhyayan Suman refused to comment, and the chief of Maharashtra State Commission for Women, Vijaya Rahatkar, in a series of tweets, claimed that Kangana's accusations were false and that she had never asked for help from the Women's Commission.
Another salvo was fired in Hrithik-Kangana saga when he finally decided to break his silence over their two-year-long legal battle, where Kangana claims she was in a relationship with him and he hacked into her email account to send himself letters to implicate her as his stalker, while he insists that he had nothing but a professional relationship with her.
In October, after steadfastly staying mum for almost two years, barring a couple of tweets, Hrithik decided to tell his story and wrote a long note addressing the matter, without naming Kangana. He also gave a series of interviews to talk about the issue. A whole of stars, including Farhan Akhtar, Twinkle Khanna, Dia Mirza, Sonali Bendre and others came out in support of Hrithik, covertly or overtly, after he decided to speak up.
And finally, rounding up the year was her interview with Rajeev Masand and Anupama Chopra for their podcast, Take 2, a few days ago. In the interview, Kangana spoke about how severely compromised Indian film awards were. Specifically mentioning Filmfare, she claimed that in 2014, her Best Supporting Actress award for Krrish was given to Supriya Pathak for Ram Leela, because she was in the US and couldn't attend the award function. Responding to her claims, Filmfare's editor, Jitesh Pillai, tweeted angrily, asking if Kangana was hallucinating, and that he had never spoken to her about Krrish 3.
Comments - Hrithik Roshan (@iHrithik) October 5, 2017
It's hard to imagine that one person can go through so many ups and downs, and increasingly ugly public spats, all in the span of one year! Regardless of whether you're a fan of Kangana's ability to say it like she sees it, or a cynic who thinks it's all an elaborate publicity stunt that is just waiting to blow up in her face, you have to admit, Kangana has had a very eventful 2017. Perhaps a quieter, more low-key 2018 is in order. Just to give even her fans a break from the constant upheaval and turmoil in her personal and professional life!
