Unlike cricket, there are no permanent friends or enemies in politics and Bollywood. For now, Karan Johar and Kangana Ranaut do not see each eye-to-eye. As a matter of fact, Johar, who has smoothly occupied our collective consciousness the way Arnab Goswami did till recently, wants to banish the actress from Bollywood, similar to the manner in which the Pandavas were sent off to the jungles.
We have not heard from Ranaut, and it is quite likely that we won’t for some time as Rangoon has flopped, despite the grubby love-making scenes in Arunachal Pradesh where the movie was shot. But, be sure that Kangana will wait for an opportune moment to hit back fiercely – as is her wont – possibly after her next hit, which will surely happen, given her immense talent.
It is unlikely that her riposte will happen over Koffee With Karan. It will then be Johar’s turn to smile sheepishly again as he did on his show, pre-Rangoon, when Ranaut was ostensibly on the way to the top, possibly even crowned as the fourth Khan of Bollywood.
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Politically Incorrect Stand
It probably occurred to Johar, when he graciously gave a grimace of sarcasm and Taimur Ali Khan’s father Saif almost squirmed off the sofa, that Ranaut could actually be the next Queen Khan. After all, in Bollywood, only a Khan can take on another Khan at the box office, TV or Twitter. And we all know that Johar can be quite flexible if it suits him, like he was when he had to deal with Raj Thackeray, the only politician in the country who tends to gain importance after every election he loses.
Others, including Modi, Gandhi, Yadav, Kejriwal need to learn from Raj. Right now, of course, Johar has taken the politically incorrect stand of attacking a woman who is clearly down.
Wait Till the Dust Settles
The real Kangana, however, need not fret. She should remember that even King Shahrukh Khan had to struggle his way up to the top right from the bottom. And he belonged to no camp, was bequeathed with no movie genes, thus totally ineligible for nepotism and backdoor entry to Bollywood via assembly line outfits such as the Dharma Productions. Johar has successfully milked the formulaic Hindi movie business model that he inherited from his father; Kangana has challenged the status quo in her roles and also prospered.
Both know every Friday a new release hits the screens, setting off another weekend of numbers and charts. Kangana might be ruled out by Karan and his coterie, but there will be others willing to offer her the DRS (Umpire Decision Review System) lifeline, which she will hopefully use more wisely than Virat Kohli.
No doubt, she will need to be play her cards carefully. Maybe like a man she should smile sheepishly and let Johar’s verbal takedown pass over till she has the box office arithmetic to speak her mind again. That is life, whether you are a man or woman, whether inside corporate boardrooms or acting in a movie.
(Siddharth Srivastava is a Gurgaon-based journalist and author of two novels ‘Blogging the 40s’ and ‘An Offbeat Story’. He can be reached @SiddharthWriter. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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