While Randeep Hooda bats for Alia Bhatt, Kangana Ranaut’s sister, Rangoli, stands up for her
BOMBAY TIMES (April 18, 2019)

Recently, Kangana Ranaut said that she was embarrassed to beat Alia Bhatt in an online poll of best performances of 2019. The actress expressed that the latter has been praised for a mediocre performance (referring to Gully Boy). In an interview, Alia responded by saying she would work harder so that the Queen actress could appreciate her performances in the future. However, Alia’s Highway co-star Randeep Hooda applauded her for not letting others’ opinion affect her work. He tweeted, ‘Dearest @aliaa08 I’m so glad you are not letting the opinions of very occasional actors and chronic victims affect you and your work.. kudos to you for your continued efforts to outdo yourself (sic).’ While he didn’t name Kangana in the tweet, it was obvious that he was standing up for Alia.

FAMILY JUMPS INTO THE FRAY
Though Kangana isn’t on social media and is yet to respond to Randeep’s comment, her sister, Rangoli, lashed out at him and dubbed him a “permanent failure”, in her tweet. She also accused him of harassing Kangana when they worked together in Ungli. Kangana’s fans, too, trolled him. Meanwhile, Alia’s mother Soni Razdan — in a now-deleted tweet — said, “Mahesh Bhatt is the man who has given her (Kangana) a break … she goes on to attack his wife and daughter. Daughter over and over again. What is left to be said then about abusing and hatred I wonder. Apart from character of course. Agenda? What’s hers? (sic)”

Rangoli clearly didn’t agree with Soni’s comment and pointed out that it was filmmaker Anurag Basu and not Mahesh Bhatt who gave Kangana a break in the industry. In her tweet, she further said, “Please note that he (Mahesh Bhatt) doesn’t own that production house, after Woh Lamhe when Kangana refused to do a film written by him called Dhokha where he wanted her to play a suicide bomber he got so upset that he not only shouted at her in his office..... but later when she went for Woh Lamhe preview to a theatre he threw chappal on her, he didn’t allow her to see her own film, she cried whole night.... and she was just 19 years old (sic).” None of the other members of the Bhatt clan were a part of this online spat.

The battle of words that took social media by storm also saw fans of the two actresses taking sides, making harsh comments and adding fuel to fire. Now, we have to wait and see if this ongoing exchange of words leads to a bigger battle, or will the matter subside in the chaos and everyday drama on social media.

Kangana Ranaut on putting her directorial debut on hold and signing up for Ekta Kapoor’s intriguing new film that marks her reunion with Rajkummar Rao
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; March 5, 2018)

Just when everyone was wondering how she would follow up her Jhansi Ki Rani act, Kangana Ranaut has revealed the attention-grabbing first look of her next, an Ekta Kapoor production with the quirky title Mental Hai Kya. The actress, however, is quick to dispel the notion that it’s a crazy comedy, insisting she’s hard put to define it. “You’re never sure if this girl is hallucinating or what’s happening to her is for real, whether the guy (Rajkummar Rao) is trying to trap her or she’s got him wrong,” Kangana reasons.

The story by Kanika Dhillon, who has also penned Abhishek Kapoor’s Kedarnath, is, for Kangana, as intriguing as the concept of alternate reality. As a child, she remembers running into a man on her way to school daily who’d laugh at the kids. “Everyone said he was mad but I wondered if we should be pitying him or he was the one pitying us. I’d have liked to study psychology had I continued with my education and over the years, have read a lot of books on the mind to satisfy this craving,” says the actress from Colombo, admitting to having long conversations with a director-friend who’s been diagnosed as bipolar.

One of her biggest regrets is that she played an actress Sana Azim modelled on the late Parveen Babi in Mohit Suri’s 2006 film Woh Lamhe when she was very young, just 19. “Mahesh Bhatt who scripted the film asked me if I understood her illness and I told him I did, but I didn’t really understand then what schizophrenia was and played the character like she was insane,” she admits. Today, she understands alternate reality better and with Prakash Kovelamudi, who bagged the National Award for the Telugu film Bommalata at the helm, Kangana is confident of doing justice to this role. “I’ve had a few readings with Prakash who studied acting at the Lee Stratsberg Theatre and Film Institute in the US. He knows his craft well and it’ll be an interesting collaboration,” she asserts.

She is equally gung-ho about her co-star recalling how during Queen, director Vikas Bahl had shown her photographs of Rajkummar and a top model asking her to decide who’d be better suited for Vijay, the fiancé who dumps Rani at the alter, changing the course of her life. “Both of us decided Raj was the best bet. I was at the top of my game then but he was not intimidated and treated me on camera with the disdain his character demanded,” she reminisces. She points out that Queen was her journey with Raj in a supporting role, but in Mental Hai Kya, both their characters are equally important. “He is a star today while still being a brilliant actor, so I will have to be on my toes to ensure he doesn’t steal the show from right under my nose,” she laughs.

When it comes to acting, Kangana is no novice having bagged three National Awards. Of late, she’s been recreating the life of Manikarnika - The Queen Of Jhansi and describes this journey as heart-breaking. “The scenes when I go out to battle with a baby tied to my back made me sigh over how unfair life was to this single mother and young woman. However, the writer, K V Vijayendra Prasad, who also scripted Baahubali, is very happy with the way we’ve translated his vision of Rani Laxmibai on screen and says Manikarnika is in no way less than Baahubali,” she exults, applauding director Krish for the dexterity with which he handled the multiple plots and the scale of the war sequences.

She has yet to see Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s period drama Padmaavat but is determined to ensure her film does not court any controversy. “A certain community was unhappy with us initially. We shared the script with them and now they’re convinced we will not demean the Rani of Jhansi in any way. You should be upfront and take immediate action. We are very confident of our film, so why let anyone put us on the backfoot?” she reasons, happy to share the script to ensure a smooth release for her film.

Meanwhile, Kangana’s built her dream house in Manali, describing it as the most divine place in the world. “When I was filming in Udaipur recently, my sister Rangoli sent me pictures of it covered in snow along with the cryptic message that I couldn’t have my cake and eat it too,” she says.

The laughter dies as the subject turns to Sridevi’s untimely demise. She reveals that the late actress would seek her out in a crowd and call her after watching one of her films to let her know that both Janhvi and she had loved her in it. “I was her fan since I saw a tubelight ad of hers as a child and wanted to break the TV screen to bring her into our home. When I’d dress up for cultural shows, my great grandmother would fondly call me Sridevi. Years later, when I returned home exhausted after a long day, I’d watch her Charlie Chaplin sequence and the 'Kaatey Nahin Katate’ song from Mr India and marvel that it was the same woman in both. She was such a childlike soul whose loss I feel deeply,” she mourns.

You wonder about her directorial debut Teju in which she was to play an 80-year-old and Kangana admits that her recent box-office reversals have made it difficult to put the project together. “I don’t have my own production house, so I have to wait for my films to work to earn the confidence of the producers. For now, it’s best to focus on acting. I can’t sit back and wait, I have to grab every opportunity because from these opportunities, my directorial dream will be reborn,” she reasons, happy that Ekta, whom she’s known for a long time, has offered her the challenge of Mental Hai Kya.