News of actress Kangana Ranaut winning the BJP nomination from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh has rattled a section of Bollywood bigwigs who see her emergence as a political force a threat to their business and other interests. The fear is that if she gets into the parliament, she will definitely go hammer and tongs against those people and political parties who harassed her post Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.
Kangana, throughout 2020, had alleged that actor Sushant Singh Rajput was “killed” as he knew “some dirty secrets” about Bollywood. At one stage, she had even offered to cooperate with the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB). The controversy relating to Rajput’s death died down subsequently but Kangana became a factional person within the Mumbai film world. At another level, her feud with actor Hrithik Roshan was the nastiest battle in the history of the Indian film industry which had impacted many powerful dynasties in Hindi films.
If Kangana wins the Mandi Lok Sabha, which many pollsters and political analysts view as a near certainty, she would be the third woman Bollywood megastar after Vyjayanthimala and Hema Malini to be winning the parliamentary polls. Several of her male counterparts, namely Sunil Dutt, Vinod Khanna and Shatrughan Sinha not only hold the distinction of a successful transition from reel to the real world of politics but also of adorning ministerial berths. Can Kangana score over Hema Malini and Vyjayanthimala on this count too, i.e. getting a ministerial berth in the next round of Narendra Modi’s council of ministers? Privately, Bollywood insiders see it as a real possibility.
Interestingly, among the many Bollywood A-listers, Kangana continues to be unpopular not only for her brand of Hindutva. For instance, today Kangana may be a huge style icon and is considered one of the best-dressed women in the industry. However, in her extraordinary journey from small town to Bollywood A-lister, she had to face many seemingly insurmountable odds. Her English pronunciation and fashion sense were constantly ridiculed. Some industry observers think it was because of her background that many top actresses and their spouses who claim to be style icons themselves, had shunned her.
Like many from Narendra Modi’s ‘New India’ small-town success stories, Kangana has turned the tables on those who believed that “outsiders” do not last in Bollywood. From 2019 onwards, Kangana consciously turned “political” when she began taking a jibe at the Indian National Congress, saying that India turned “truly independent” under Prime Minister Modi. On the eve of the 17th Lok Sabha polls, Kangana had said, “I feel India is gaining its independence in the real sense of the term today. Because before this, we were servants of the Mughal, British and Italian governments. So please exercise your right and vote.” Then too, some politically inclined persons in Bollywood had mocked her, pointing out that she badly needed basic lessons in history and political science.
Kangana, however, remained unfazed and often accused the media of siding with the Kapoor, Khan, Roshan, Johar and Bachchan clans despite her phenomenal success and talent. This was an erroneous and fallacious charge. In fact, throughout the Hrithik Roshan episode, both electronic and print media had been giving a splash to each word spoken by her and her sister cum manager, Rangoli.
Kangana’s struggle to find acceptance from Bollywood’s iconic families improved when she, much like Priyanka Chopra, developed an ‘I do not care’ attitude towards the high and mighty of Bollywood. She realised, perhaps a bit in a hard way, that the more a person hankers after acceptance, the less acceptance s/he gets.
How would Kangana behave after June 4, 2024, as an elected parliamentarian? She is unlikely to sober down or stop making sensational, jaw-dropping statements.
The writer is a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. A well-known political analyst, he has written several books, including ‘24 Akbar Road’ and ‘Sonia: A Biography’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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