SCOOP: Kangna Ranaut strikes back at Karan Johar, calls him a 'male chauvinist' and a 'paid host'

Days after the release of the Koffee With Karan episode featuring Kangna Ranaut and Saif Ali Khan on the couch in its fifth season, it sparked a controversy when Karan reacted to a couple of statements made by Kangna on the show. While his accusation of the actress constantly using the ‘victim card' hasn’t gone down well with the feisty Ranaut, she has responded to the allegations without mincing words once again.

For the uninitiated, when Kangna Ranaut appeared on the show, she made comments on Karan Johar and his close knit group by calling him the ‘snooty flag bearer of nepotism’ and that ‘he runs a movie mafia’. While the filmmaker took it in his stride then, during a recent event at the London School of Economics, he reacted to the same by claiming that Kangna Ranaut should stop playing the victim card and also stated that he gave her a platform to put forth her views. The filmmaker also mentioned that Kangna had probably misunderstood the meaning of nepotism.

Reacting strongly to his recent accusations, Kangna Ranaut spoke to Mumbai Mirror on the same saying, “I can't speak for Karan Johar's understanding of nepotism. If he thinks that it is restricted to nephews, daughters and cousins, I have nothing to say. But, to say that he chose not to give me work is to mock an artiste.” She further reminded him about their professional collaboration, Ungli in which she played the leading lady and he was the producer of the film but also added that their sensibilities didn’t match then.

Yet another statement that the actress was keen on responding to was about giving her a platform. While she continued to talk about the global platforms she has been in, she also stated on how he invited her for the fifth season of the talk show (which was Kangna’s first appearance) whereas the show debuted in 2008 thereby justifying her comment on ‘nepotism’.

But it was the ‘victim card’ that seems to have hurt the actress the most and now the spat seems to have turned into battle of sexes as the actress continued to speak about women and their rights. Calling it demeaning to women in general especially the ones who are vulnerable, Kangna went on to add that a ‘woman card’ can be used for pregnant women in times of need, for one’s safety, for getting justice and for many of these noble purposes.

“The same goes for the `victim card', which women like my sister, Rangoli, who is a victim of an acid attack, can use while fighting for justice in court. I use every card possible. At the workplace, it's the badass card to fight cutthroat competition. With my family and loved ones, it's the love card. When fighting the world, it's the dignity card, and for a seat in a bus, it's the woman card. What is important to understand is that we are not fighting people, we are fighting a mentality. I am not fighting Karan Johar, I am fighting male chauvinism,” Kangna said.

Besides this, Kangna also gave a piece of advice to the filmmaker who is now a father and has a daughter. “Now that Karan is the father of a little daughter, he should provide her with all these cards - the `woman card' and the `victim card', as also the `self-made-independent-woman card', and the `badass card' that I flashed on his show. We will use whatever we need to ensure no one rocks our boat,” she concluded.

On the other hand, Kangna Ranaut also took on the comment where the filmmaker had maintained that he was gracious enough to not chop off these tidbits and allowed it to be aired on national television. She said that even the channel wants TRP and that Karan is just a paid host. Sarcastically stating that the film industry is not a studio gifted to him by his father, Kangna further went on to claim that every Indian has a right to be a part of the industry that includes even people like her who come from a poor background and she asserted that she is neither planning to nor will she leave the industry.