Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut has spilled the beans on her struggles as an outsider in Bollywood, owing to nepotistic camps, in a recent interview with a news portal. In a pertinent instance, she has opened up on her interaction with the YRF Managing Director Aditya Chopra, after she made news for turning his offer on the blockbuster ‘Sultan’ down.
Ranaut has slammed Chopra for threatening her with an industry exit, despite having clarified with ‘Sultan’ Director Ali Abbas Zafar, who she claims came to her house with the script, that she was regretful, and that she would like to personally express her apologies to Chopra for turning it down.
“I did not wish to work with the Khans”, revealed Kangana, who had just delivered her own blockbuster ‘Tanu Weds Manu’ around the time. Chopra is said to have approached her with the offer to play the lead in his upcoming film starring Salman Khan in the opposite, which was later played by Anushka Sharma.
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Kangana added that Zafar seemed fine with the refusal at the moment, but after a a news article made it public, Chopra, she alleged, messaged her, “You are finished.”
Notably, the Queen fame has been making news for her statements on actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s suspected suicide, after she posted a spree of videos on her Instagram account wherein she can be seen pinpointing at a ‘Bollywood Mafia’ for driving Rajput to the brink and abetting his suicide, which she calls a murder. Talking about the problem of nepotism in the Hindi film industry, Kangana has lashed out against several big names in Bollywood for systemically boycotting Rajput, hence essentially making him an outcast, to pave way for the rise of other star-kids.
“I will return my Padma Shri if I’m unable to prove my claims on Sushant”, said Ranaut who has claimed that Rajput was pushed to take the drastic step after he was pulled down by other B-Town celebrities and pieces of yellow journalism, despite repeatedly attracting swathes of audiences and giving out one successful film after another.
Ranaut has also claimed that she was summoned by the Mumbai Police in relation to the investigation on Rajput’s sudden passing, on which she had asked the police for sending someone to record her statement in Manali, where she was residing at the time. But she claims that the police did not contact her again.
Ranaut, in the much-talked about interview, revealed that she had contemplated suicide when she lost all her 18 brands in 2016 after an ex-partner filed a case against her, post which her reputation in the media plummeted leading to scathing articles on her character. Her deep investment with the brands and losing them all in a span of two months, Kangana said, made her utterly hopeless, after which she had even thought of shaving her head and running away. She added that her declining public reputation also pushed her own relatives against her who started to take her for a nymphomaniac and a “bad influence” on youngsters.
Kangana has been conferred with 3 National Awards and a recent Padma Shri in a decade-long star-studded career. She has emerged as a symbol of empowerment and struggle for aspiring actors unrelated to the industry and her open take-downs on Bollywood’s nepotism has amassed her public support. She last featured in Ashwini Iyer Tiwari’s ‘Panga’, and is set to star in ‘Thalaivi’ and ‘Dhaakad’ as her next big ventures.
Also read: Sushant Singh Rajput death case: Aditya Chopra records statement
