The Press Club of India has issued a statement condemning Kangana Ranaut’s recent spat with a journalist at a promotional event for her upcoming film Judgementall Hai Kya. The organisation termed the actor’s behaviour “unacceptable” and extended its support to entertainment journalists who have decided to boycott her in protest.
“We the Press Club of India are aghast, anguished and shocked at the incident involving an actress of Bollywood using uncivilised, uncultured, filthy and abusive language against the Media persons. We condemn it in the strongest possible words. This behaviour and hurling abuses towards journalists is unacceptable,” the statement reads.
Read the full statement from the Press Club of India here:
“We the Press Club of India are aghast, anguished and shocked at the incident involving an actress of Bollywood using uncivilised, uncultured, filthy and abusive language against the Media persons. We condemn it in the strongest possible words. This behaviour and hurling abuses towards journalists is unacceptable.
We support the decision of the boycott by the journalists covering the entertainment industry in Mumbai namely Entertainment Journalists Guild. We extend our support to the Mumbai Press Club for undertaking thorough enquiry of the matter.
Lastly we, the Press Club of India wish to appeal to the saner and civilised members of the Bollywood to prevail upon these uncivilised, uncultured and unruly elements and entities of their industry. We hope and expect that the sanity and wisdom will prevail.
Kangana Ranaut Verbally Attacks Journalist at ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’ Event
On Monday, 8 July, Kangana Ranaut lashed out at PTI journalist Justin Rao and accused him of bashing her previous film Manikarnika. The incident took place at the launch of a song from Judgementall Hai Kya, which also stars Rajkummar Rao and has been produced by Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures. In response, the Entertainment Journalists’ Guild of India (EJGI), on 9 July, wrote an open letter addressed to producer Ekta Kapoor, demanding she issue a statement publicly condemning Kangana’s behaviour. The guild also announced their decision to boycott Kangana and not give her any press coverage.
Balaji Motion Pictures responded with a statement apologising for the incident and requested the media “not to let this one incident hamper the team effort that has gone behind making the film”. The guild, however, refused to revoke the ban on Kangana.
Mumbai Press Club to Consider Pressing Criminal Charges
The Mumbai Press Club has also issued a statement saying that it “stands fully behind the Guild to demand Ms Ranaut tender an apology to Justin Rao and the other journalists for her behaviour,” and that it “fully supports their call for a complete boycott of her events”.
It said that it had examined the footage of various videos and that it is “clear that while Justin was fully composed, Ms Ranaut was abusive and insulting to Rao accusing him of writing against her movies.” It observed that as a journalist, Rao was “fully within his rights to criticise her work.” “A job of a journalist is to provide independent assessment of entertainment content; and critical commentary cannot be reason enough to lose control, turn against the media and hurl expletives,” the statement pointed out.
The Mumbai Press Club also said that it would investigate the incident in detail and would consider taking up the matter with various associations of film makers. It also said that since this is not the first time that Kangana Ranaut and her sister and manager Rangoli Chandel have lashed out at journalists, it would “examine the option of pressing criminal charges of abuse, defamation and intimidation against Kangana Ranaut; as well as seek civil compensation for preventing journalists from carrying on their professional work.”
Read the full statement from the Mumbai Press Club here.
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