The most polarising figure in Bollywood is Kangana Ranaut. She is an actress, writer, model, and filmmaker who has made huge cinema waves since the 2000s. Recently she has been mired in one controversy after another that has given her both fans and detractors. Two things nobody can deny about her are how talented she is and the fearlessness Kangana displays.
Like many great actresses of Indian cinema, she's had to face many challenges in her formative years. Kangana describes her home life situation as highly toxic and patriarchal. Girls and Boys had different rules, what they could do with their lives. She wasn't allowed to watch movies, and they curbed her freedoms at every turn.
She was considered an unwanted child as her parents wanted a boy instead of a girl. They constantly told her this throughout her childhood on every public occasion, which deeply hurt her. Kangana felt suffocated in the house and found a lot of peace being alone as a social recluse. An old soul at heart, she spent most of her time playing with dolls and contemplating life.
Kangana Ranaut was naturally attracted towards the performing arts and creativity rather than getting into the technical field. She decided to rebel against her parents, drop out of college, and live alone and explore the world. This angered her father, and he stopped paying for her living expenses, due to which she became independent at an early age. Kangana earned her living through modeling and performing in theater. She eventually stopped talking to them all together and had an emotional reunion with them during the Life in Metro's release.
Kangana has been part of many controversies, but this one is more serious than others. Multiple people have accused her in different projects of stealing credits. It started with the 2017 film Simran where Kangana was credited as an additional dialogue and story writer.
The writer Apurva Asrani called this an attempt to hijack and steal his work. Kangana said that she had improved throughout the film and hence should be credited.
Do you think Kangana is justified in her part, or is the writer too paranoid?
Kangana Ranaut has been having some serious tax troubles in recent times. She got on Instagram and wrote the following statement.
Even though I come under the highest tax slab, pay almost 45 % of my income as tax, even though I am the highest tax-paying actress but because of no work haven't paid half of my last year's tax yet, first time in my life I am late in paying tax,"
This is a strange turn of events for the actresses and maybe results from her recent bold attitude. Is this the beginning of troubles for the star or just a rough patch she is bound to overcome?
One cannot talk about Kangana without mentioning the nepotism debate in Bollywood. Her fiery response on Koffee with Karan opened up a whole conversation about this topic and sparked a revolution. Many see her as the outsider fighting against the Bollywood insiders, but others don't agree. They see Nepotism as a problem, but the way she's tackling the issues is a bit extreme.
After the Sushant Singh Rajput row, there was a widespread hate campaign against the product of Nepotism. It seemed more counterproductive to many bullying these actors in the name of someone who dealt with mental health issues. Is the debate getting more and more devolved into petty snipes than dealing with the actual issues?
Credit is where credit is due; she might bring equality to the Bollywood system, whatever side you fall onto in this debate.
Kangana Ranaut is a woman that lives life on her terms and is on the top of the entertainment industry. Her journey has been filled with many hardships, and she has managed to overcome them all. Kangana is an inspiration for millions of aspirants to make it into the industry with pure passion and hard work. No godfather or rich parents to support her.
She is defying all odds at every turn and is truly marvelous.