Kangana Ranaut‘s fierce statements on Koffee With Karan 5 made headlines for days after her episode aired. She accused Karan Johar for being the flag-bearer of nepotism and called him a ‘movie mafia’, and in return, he said that he was done with Kangana playing the victim/woman card. He also said Kangana should leave the industry if she is that terrorised by it.
Now, in a tell-all interview with MumbaiMirror, Kangana responded to Karan’s remarks and she did not hold herself back in any form. Here are a few excerpts:
“I can’t speak for Karan Johar’s understanding of nepotism. If he thinks that it is restricted to nephews, daughters and cousins, I have nothing to say. As importantly, his memory appears to be poor because we worked together in a movie (Ungli), which was produced by him. And quickly realised our sensibilities did not match.”
“I’m also at a loss to understand how he gave me a platform by inviting me to be on his show. I’ve been on several platforms before with several global icons. His team requested my team for months for my dates.”
“But what is pertinent here is: why is Karan Johar trying to shame a woman for being a woman? What is this about the ‘woman card’ and the ‘victim card’? This kind of talk is demeaning to all women, particularly the vulnerable because they are the ones who really need to use them.”
“I am not fighting Karan Johar, I am fighting male chauvinism. Now that Karan is the father of a little daughter, he should provide her with all these cards – the ‘woman card’ and the ‘victim card’, as also the ‘self-made-independent-woman card’, and the ‘badass card’ that I flashed on his show. We will use whatever we need to ensure no one rocks our boat.”
“I’m also a little surprised at the “graciousness” he says he displayed in choosing to not edit the jousty bits on the show. While I’d have blacklisted the channel if something like that had happened, let’s also remember that a channel wants TRPs, and he is just a paid host.”
“Also, the Indian film industry is not a small studio given to Karan by his father when he was in his early 20s. That is just a small molecule. The industry belongs to every Indian and is highly recommended for outsiders like me whose parents were too poor to give me a formal training. I learnt on the job and got paid for it, using the money to educate myself in New York. He is nobody to tell me to leave it. I’m definitely not going anywhere, Mr Johar.”
You can read her entire statement here.