It is time Kangana Ranaut shifts focus from being a headline grabber to one who actually wins a Lok Sabha seat and adds to the BJP’s headcount of ‘is baar 400 paar… by KUMKUM CHADHA
From a Kangana who status to being handpicked by the BJP to contest the Lok Sabha election, film star turned politician Kangana Ranaut has come a long way. Not that her journey has been easy: on the contrary it has been a bumpy ride all through with her treading on rocky ground and stumbling. Yet she did not give up, her resilience being her armour and her ‘never say die’ spirit the sheath.
Here, one has to begin from the beginning and address the Kangana who factor.
Ranaut started off as a model before joining films less than two decades ago. She did get roles and also bagged a few awards but when it came to memorable performances she had very little to show. Her comic role in Hindi film Tanu weds Manu, did turn things around a bit but it was not as if she had arrived, so to speak.
Talking purely objectively, as a film star Kangana Ranaut never actually made headlines. But she managed to stay in the news for all else. Therefore when a Congress minister dubbed her as the “queen of controversies” he was not off the mark.
In fact, this best describes Ranaut both in and outside films.
Before eyeing the political spectrum, she created enough ruckus in the film industry.
Very few would have forgotten the Hrithik Roshan-Kangana Ranaut controversy wherein Kangana alleged their off camera relationship, to put it mildly.
During media interviews that Kangana cashed in on, she said that while the duo was shooting for Krrish, there was a “romantic chemistry” between the two.
Being a well-known and talented actor, Hrithik did not need any of this: he had a tough time denying the charges.
Ranaut on her part made the most of it and continued her tirade against the actor. In fact, her claims were louder than Roshan’s denials.
If Ranaut called Roshan her “silly ex,” and said that their relationship resulted in Roshan’s marriage breaking up, the actor said he would rather “date the Pope”.
The controversy took a serious turn when Roshan sued Kangana, but by then it had helped her become a household name.
Hrithik Roshan is not the only one. Ranaut also took on Karan Johar, another big daddy of the film industry.
In a show hosted by Johar, Kangana called him the “flagbearer of nepotism”.
This sparked a debate on whether star kids have it easy and “outsiders” continue to struggle. It also questioned Bollywood’s Big boys club which keeps out those who refuse to toe the line.
The issue touched a chord because apart from exposing the dark underbelly in Bollywood, it brought to the fore the nexus between clan and class; a world where families take precedence over talent and merit.
A journalist, who described Kangana as “a permanent outsider who can play the game better than most insiders” couldn’t have put it better.
If the Roshan affair had projected Ranaut negatively, the nepotism controversy showed her up as one who dared: a rank outsider who has the guts to hit out at the exclusive club that dominates the film industry.
But Ranaut’s speak out was not limited to Bollywood. She stepped out and made sensational comments about the country, its freedom and also about India’s first Prime Minister. In fact it is the last that is grabbing eyeballs but about that later.
For those who think that Ranaut’s political adventure is sudden are in for a surprise. She has been flexing muscles for a while. True to her grain, she had taken on political parties time and again as she had challenged the might of Bollywood.
She crossed swords with the then undivided Shiv Sena by comparing Mumbai to Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The Mumbai Police, she said, haunts her more than the mafias of Bollywood clearly pointing a finger at the state government then headed by Uddhav Thackeray.
When Member of Parliament, Sanjay Raut used abusive language against Ranaut, she hit back saying that his goons can kill her but not stop her from entering Maharashtra. Raut had asked her not to enter the state.
Ranuat seems to have chartered her political course deftly. It did take a while but has certainly paid off given that she could be BJP’s next Member of Parliament.
Be it by accident or design, Ranaut has been effusive about her praise for the BJP government. She has also made right noises about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and said things one would wish to hear.
Taking to Instagram, she had spoken about him being “extraordinary” and a “Mahapurush”, a great man.
In the same strain, she said that India got “real freedom” in 2014 thereby implying that Mr Modi’s advent as Prime Minister was the real turning point. In the process, she belittled India’s freedom struggle on grounds that the 1947 azadi was a bheek, alms. But that is another matter.
That apart, in keeping with the BJP’s ideology, Ranaut has made it known that she is a proud Hindu who “loves her puja”. She also heaped praise on the BJP-led government for the rise of Ram temple in Ayodhya “after 600 years of struggle”.
That apart, she has backed the saffron Party to the hilt including the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill or the CAA. Commenting on the opposition that has followed, Ranaut asked the people to “understand” the legislation and what it stood for before opposing it.
On that score, Ranaut leaves much to be desired.
Recently, she displayed a complete lack of “understanding” of India’s history when she said that India’s first Prime Minister was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
For those who are aware of Kangana’s background would perhaps put it to sheer ignorance and brush this faux pas under the carpet.
But the BJP being BJP turned it around and defended the blunder.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma recalled that several countries had recognized Netaji’s Azad Hind government as the legitimate government of India, four years before India became independent.
For the uninitiated Ranaut had, during a media interaction, called Bose India’s first Prime Minister.
She later chided those mocking her on grounds that Netaji had formed the Azad Hind Fauj government in Singapore in 1943 and declared himself Prime Minister: “The joke is on you” she shot back at those giving her “gyan”, general knowledge on India’s first Prime Minister.
However to set the record straight, it was none other than Netaji’s very own who stepped in to clear the air. His grandnephew, Chandra Kumar Bose rued the “distortion of history for political ambition”.
Netaji’s kin also advised Ranaut for following Netaji’s ideology before referring to him.
If Ranaut’s track record is anything to go by, she is unlikely to follow this advice. She is a law unto herself and one whom the BJP may find difficult to rein in.
If reports are to be believed Party managers have asked her to speak “not more than a sentence” lest she muddies the waters in the forthcoming elections. And if she has to speak, then she should stick to the brief of propagating Prime Minister Modi’s welfare schemes.
Irrespective, it is time for Ranaut to understand that unlike films, politics is a different ball game and often headlines become a nightmare. However confident one may be of turning this to one’s advantage, during elections, things do not pan out the way they are planned.
Therefore while controversies in the past have brought her to centre stage, it is time Ranaut shifts focus from being a headline grabber to one who actually wins a Lok Sabha seat and adds to the BJP’s headcount of is baar 400 paar…
