Battle lines are drawn

Actress-turned-filmmaker Kangana Ranaut, who is currently riding high on the success of her latest release Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, says the Hindi film industry has called for trouble by ganging up against her.

Ranaut, in an interview earlier, had criticised celebrities for not turning up for the screening of Manikarnika..., but contacting her for the screenings of their films.

“Earlier, I used to stand up against sexism, pay disparity and nepotism in Bollywood but now, I will expose everybody. One thing is for sure that they have called for trouble by ganging up against me,” she said.

Asked whether Manikarnika... would have got more benefit if her colleagues from Bollywood would have promoted the film, Ranaut said: “I don’t think promotions of my film by other actors will benefit my film. I have already won three national awards and at the age of 31, I have become a filmmaker so who are they to promote me?”

The actress believes the industry is ganging up against her as she spoke up about nepotism in the industry. The actress, who sparked the debate by calling filmmaker Karan Johar a “flagbearer of nepotism” on his show Koffee With Karan in 2017, labelled Bollywood as shameless.

“They are shameless people and some of them are my grandfather’s age. I don’t want to work with them and I say this to them on their face .... ”