Dear Karan Johar, you cannot ask Kangana to leave the industry because she stated the obvious

 

Dear Karan Johar,

        

       This might be the umpteenth letter addressed to you this week. Well, you made your comments public so the reaction also has be a little over dramatic. Giving credit where its due - The media gets that flair for the dramatic from you.

 

         I believe you have not heard the saying ‘call a spade a spade’ or is that something not happening in your filmy circles? The latter, will be closer to the truth, remember ‘why we can’t expect someone to do a Meryl Streep in Bollywood’. You certainly don’t believe in it or else Ae dil hai mushkil and Kapoor and Sons would not have turned out that way.

 

 

         On International Women’s Day, world over people are celebrating, applauding and encouraging women from various walks of life. I am sure you too will tweet about how you think your mother and your close relatives and female friends are epitomes of strong women.  

 

       Well, you may do well to add another name to your list – Kangana Ranaut. You ask how dare I insinuate something like this?  She called you the "flag-bearer of nepotism" in Bollywood. I am sure there must be some truth to it, to have hurt; no wonder you are acting like a sore loser. You or your team, I believe, called her to Koffee with Karan sets along with Saif Ali Khan and as you wrote in your book, nothing is scripted on it, and yet you say like an authoritarian “If I wanted I could have edited it”. I tell you why you did not edit it – it gave the show a million and gazillion views and hits.

 

 

So Mr Karan Johar, it’s not Kangana who is playing the victim, you are. It was all well until the show garnered all the hits, but when people actually saying things out loud, you got uncomfortable? Just because she speaks her mind and got so far without waiting for a Khan to do a film with her or wait for a director like you to sign her, you feel she is not part of the industry?
 

Funny, if you consider Kangana so inconsequential, her comments should not hurt you. London School of Economics was where you chose to voice your opinions. Sorry to say, but Kangana never played the ‘victim’ card. She has complimented you, in a very subtle manner.

 

In fact, all she said that your indifference and prejudice against her small town, non-english speaking character coupled by a host of niggles, is what spurred her to become better at her work. To make in-roads into an industry which works on different levels of nepotism is an achievement and you, Karan, have been a ‘driving force’ in her life. You also cannot deny that you have meted out this 'judging attitude' to many others in the industry, teasing them or mocking their connections, their habits, their fashion sense or their inadequacies. 

 

If you want to be respected for that, then be a gentleman enough to accept that somewhere down the line your prejudices and work behaviour has also encouraged this feeling of you handholding star kids

 

In Bollywood Khans recommend actresses, their friends recommend actresses, or directors who have clout decide who works with whom. Can you deny this?

 

Few actresses have been signed on only because their work is genuinely good. I would not go as far to say that Kangana is an amazing actress, but I will hand it to her that she plays her roles with elan, guts and an attitude that is hard to come by - it is not taught in film schools or are churned from PR mills or filmy homes. Queen, Tanu Weds Manu, Bullet Raja, Fashion, Gangster etc are not roles that were easy to pull off and yet she managed to get critics and fans talking.

 

 

All she said was something you have proudly accepted before and tom tom as your achievements. You have given breaks to a lot of star kids and a lot of your movies revolve around your close coterie of friends and their families. Once in a while you have ‘allowed’ another producer or director to take the limelight and often and on in “An Unsuitable Boy” you have mentioned it.

 

You listed in your speech how you gave a chance to many other directors, well, good for you. If you want to be respected for that, then be a gentleman enough to accept that somewhere down the line your prejudices and work behaviour has also encouraged this feeling of you handholding star kids. You yourself say- Alia Bhatt, Aryan Khan, Ab Ram, Varun Dhawan etc are like your responsibility. We have not heard you saying the same about Swara Bhaskar or Kangana or a Nawazuddin Siddiqui.

 

It’s difficult to blame your nepotism also, because being in the industry you have essentially followed and engrained what you have seen around you and before you. No matter how many times a star kid fails or flops he/she is given another chance or another venue/vehicle but when it comes to outsiders are they given a fair chance? I leave to you to decide.