Kangana Ranaut’s sister is on a roll again. This time she’s waging war on the ‘nepotism gang’ that, according to Rangoli Chandel, swept up all the awards at the recently concluded Filmfare Awards that were held on February 15.
Best Actress winner Alia Bhatt was dragged into the firing line, along with Best Debut winner Ananya Panday. Incidentally, both stars got their big break in Bollywood through films by Karan Johar.
“Alia got award for her mediocre performance last year, she has a long way to go but still she was in the lead role, how do you get lead role award in a supporting role is beyond me,” tweeted Chandel in response to Bhatt winning the award for ‘Gully Boy’.
Panday’s award for ‘Student of the Year 2’ also did not go down well with Chandel.
“Radhika Madan [actress in ‘Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota’] deserved the best debutant award not Ananya, she has opportunities known parents papa jo, at least give Radhika little encouragement…,” Chandel tweeted, adding: “Ankita [Lokhande of ‘Manikarnika’] as Jhalkari Bai was a supreme debut…”
“Harassment and suppression of real hard working talent, celebration of mediocrity over extraordinary cinema is why Kangana takes movie mafia class and slaps them on their faces... I am with her in her fight,” Chandel added.
However, Chandel’s latest Twitter rant is one such battle in a long history of waging war against filmmakers, actors and the system that she feels has denied her sister her place in history. We take a look back at the most recent online clashes:
Rangoli Chandel vs Alia Bhatt
Chandel certainly has no love lost where Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt is concerned. The online war escalated to a point that Bhatt’s mother Soni Razdan also ended up wading into the fight, before deleting her tweet in which she called out the two sisters.
It all started out when Ranaut praised Bhatt for her role in 2018’s spy drama, ‘Raazi’, but didn’t have the latter return the favour when ‘Manikarnika: Queen of Jhansi’ released last year. Such was the escalation that Chandel, who is also Ranaut’s official spokesperson, hinted at the motive behind this by bringing the younger star’s nationality into question.
Chandel called them “non-Indians who are living off this land, using and abusing its people and its resources, lying about intolerance and spreading hatred.”
She further added: “Time to think about their agenda and not to get carried away with their provocations.”
In an earlier interview, when Soni Razdan was quizzed about the same, and had responded by saying: “I do not wish to be drawn into this madness.”
However, she finally did break her silence in a now deleted tweet where she called Ranaut ungrateful for targeting the family of the man who had given the actress her first break with ‘Woh Lamhe’, referring to her husband and Bhatt’s father, Mahesh Bhatt.
But Chandel would have none of it.
“Soniji, Mahesh Bhatt never gave her a break, Anurag Basu did, Mahesh Bhattji works as a creative director in his brothers production house. Please note that he 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 [slipper] on her, he didn’t allow her to see her own film, she cried whole night... and she was just 19 years old [sic],” Chandel wrote.
Rangoli Chandel vs Randeep Hooda
Randeep Hooda, who last appeared in ‘Love Aaj Kal’, found himself on received end of Chandel’s wrath when he waded into the Alia Bhatt vs Kangana Ranaut cold war.
In a show of support of Bhatt, his ‘Highway’ co-star, Hooda wrote on Twitter: “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.”
Chandel, naturally, would not take this sitting down and she soon retaliated with her own statement.
“Alia baby ko bachane ko nepotism gang ki khud ki himmat nahin toh tujhko aage kiya [To save Alia baby, the nepotism gang didn’t have the guts to do it themselves so they pushed you ahead]. I know during film ‘Ungli’ what u did, kitna harass kiya tune Kangana ko aur kitna bada chatukar hai tu Karan Johar ka... [During the shoot of ‘Ungli’, I know how much you harassed Kangana and how much of a minion you are of Karan Johar] @RandeepHooda,” tweeted Chandel. She continued: “At least people like Alia are successful because of chamchagiri [sycophancy], bhai tu to permanent failure hai [brother, you are a permanent failure].
Rangoli Chandel vs Taapsee Pannu
The honest-to-a-fault Taapsee Pannu found herself on the receiving end of criticism from Chandel last year, after the ‘Saand Ki Aankh’ actress failed to mention Ranaut’s name in her appreciation tweet for the trailer of ‘Judgementall Hai Kya?’.
Chandel could not let this go.
“Kuch log Kangana ko copy kar ke he apni dukaan chalate hain [Some people run their shop by copying Kangana], magar [but] please note, they never acknowledge her, not even a mention of her name in praising the trailer. Last, I heard Taapseeji said Kangana needs a double filter and Taapseeji you need to stop being a sasti copy [cheap copy].”
Pannu came back with her on response saying: “Short life, no time to waste on this. Have so many happier and better things happening in my life to look at right now.”
Filmmaker Anurag Kashyap also waded into the backlash, refusing to keep mum on the subject.
“Come on Rangoli.. this is going too far.. this is really really desperate.. I really don’t know what to say to this. Having worked with both your sister and Taapsee .. I just don’t get this.. praising the trailer means praising all aspect of it. Which includes Kangana,” he tweeted.
Rangoli Chandel vs Karan Johar
The Johar-Ranaut cold war has been brewing ever since the latter appeared on the filmmaker’s talk show, ‘Koffee With Karan’ and called him out for being the flag bearer of nepotism in Bollywood.
In response, Johar, along with Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan, mocked Ranaut’s statement with the now infamous ‘nepotism rocks’ comment on stage at an awards show in 2017. The battle lines were soon drawn and there was no going back since.
In the aftermath, Chandel has left no stone unturned in calling out Johar on social media. Last year, in response to a tweet by actor and ‘Bigg Boss’ contestant Kamaal R Khan, Ranaut’s sister made some alarming comments about the filmmaker.
“Karan not only takes huge percentage of every artist earnings who he launches or works with and sends to Matrix but also tells them what to wear and who to sleep with, percentage I understand lot of Hollywood production houses do that but always forcing actors to patch up & break up based on his brand propaganda requirements will not be acceptable by any self-respecting individual career…” Chandel tweeted.
She also went after Johar once again after he hosted the recently concluded Filmfare Awards.
“Also KJo made sure Kalank ko bhi awards mile [Also, Karan Johar made sure ‘Kalank’ won awards as well]. Wahre duniya, hawas ka nanga nach toh suna tha magar Nepotism ka nanga nach aaj dekhne ko mila [Oh wow, I have seen naked lust, but now I get to see naked neptism].”
‘Kalank’, which was a box office failure last year, saw the film bag to Filmfare Awards, namely Best Playback Singer (Male) for Arijit Singh and Best Choreography for Remo D’Souza for the track ‘Ghar More Pardesiya’.
