Kangana Ranaut is a hot topic on Twitter after the actress' interaction with spiritual leader Sadhguru in Mumbai earlier this week. In the conversation, Kangana lambasted 'liberals' as 'people who won't include you in their group unless you hate the same people as they do.' She also revealed, somewhat controversially, that a scene of her character saving a calf in new film Manikarnika was changed because the film's crew 'didn't want to look like cow saviours.' To this, she added that she 'definitely wants to save cows... but lynching for cows takes place and you look like an idiot.' Kangana's comments have proved, again, inflammatory and while right-wing voices on Twitter are claiming her as one of their own, others profess themselves appalled by what she has said.
A tweet from YouTuber Dhruv Rathee calls out both Kangana Ranaut and Sadhguru for the remarks they made.
I supported Jaggi in Rally for Rivers & appreciate Kangna's movies but what they're talking here is ridiculous!
— Dhruv Rathee (@dhruv_rathee) August 9, 2018
- Calling Liberals as Fanatics
- Normalizing Mob Lynching by calling it "Real India"
- Kangana agreeing to it & saying it happens in her village
Crazy! pic.twitter.com/Vi9NBykvW2
Others tweeted in the same vein.
Always admired Kangana, always. Never expected that she would normalise lynchings. Her feminism is all about herself. Disappointed as a Fan.
— JAS (@ApatheistWrites) August 10, 2018
and @SadhguruJV normalises Lynchings and says people who criticise Lynchings don't know real India.
Shocked!
Right wing icons Kangana & Sadhguruji criticize liberals and sort of justify people getting violent to protect cows in India.
— Od (@odshek) August 8, 2018
pic.twitter.com/aORXJYmyAE
Cow is Kangana's new sling-shot to take the center stage.
— Snigdha Samal (@SamalSnigdha) August 9, 2018
Kangana Ranaut can understand the nuances of privilege and the dangers of terms like 'eugenics' but does not understand systemic majoritarian violence. Is she stupid or does she think we are?
— Shvetal (@novelnarratives) August 10, 2018
The world is filled with people like Kangana Ranaut.
— . (@ShiftedtoMars) August 9, 2018
1.attentionseeker.
2.opportunist.
3.backstabber.
4.Hypocrite.
Kangana Ranaut's criticism of liberals has likely alienated many of those who hailed her as a feminist icon and welcomed her refusal to back down while conducting a very public feud with Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan.
However distasteful Kangana's freely-aired opinions might seem to many, a couple of tweets proved once again why Twitter is no friend to free speech, branding Kangana the 'right-wing Swara Bhasker' and insulting two women at one go - Swara, star of films such as Veere Di Wedding, is regularly trolled for expressing opinions on everything from politics to films.
@ReallySwara Kangana Ranaut is the Swara Bhaskar of Right wings.
— Nikhil Prajapati (@nikhilbhaijaan) August 10, 2018
Here's some of what Kangana Ranaut said in her conversation with Sadhguru. "I'm working on a martyr's biopic Manikarnika where there is a scene where my protagonist, Laxmi Bai, goes and saves a calf. My crew had a discussion, we halted the shoot. They said 'we can't save a calf' because we don't want to look like cow savers," she said at the event, news agency PTI reported.
"When such a prejudice thrives, as a person you feel very protective of who you are and what your values are, and you want to save all animals and you definitely want to save the cows because the prejudice is really agonising. But (then) lynching for cows takes place and you look like an idiot. You feel conflicted. You want to save the animals but when the lynching happens, you feel heartbroken at what's going on. You feel this is wrong," Kangana said.
She also slammed her colleagues for not taking a stand on the social issues prevalent in the county and said, "I feel we should talk about present day conditions of our country and we should think about how we can unite this country. Most of my contemporaries don't talk about it."
Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi is a biopic on Rani Laxmibai and the trailer is expected to release soon.
(With PTI and IANS inputs)
