In what shows that Bollywood actor Kangana Ranaut in the recent controversy involving her spat with the journalist Justin Rao and the subsequent ban imposed on her by the Entertainment Journalists Guild. She has reportedly served a legal notice to the guild and the Press Club of India demanding that the ban imposed on her by the Entertainment Journalists Guild be removed within 24 hours.
Actor Kangana Ranaut sends legal notice to Entertainment Journalist Guild and Press Club of India for "wrongful, immoral, unethical & illegal acts of lending support to a journalist Justin Rao who is accused of indulging in unprofessional & illegal activities" pic.twitter.com/S5AFliB0eF
— ANI (@ANI) July 13, 2019
The controversy had erupted during the promotion of ‘Judgment hai Kya!’ when the actress refused to take questions from journalist Justin Rao. Rao had earlier made fun of Ranaut’s personality and her selection of films, due to which she did not like his presence at the promotion event.
The Entertainment Journalists Guild in light of the incident decided to ban Kangana Ranaut, a decision, which has been backed by the Press Club of India. The entertainment guild stated, “We, as a guild, have collectively decided to boycott Ms Ranaut and not give her any media coverage.”
The Entertainment Journalists’ Guild had even demanded an apology from the actress and the Press Club of India had supported the guild. The Press Club of India had released a statement which read, “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.”
However, Kangana has not succumbed to the pressure being exerted on her to back down. It was indeed highly immature and unprofessional on the guild’s part to impose a ban on Kangana just because she happened to have expressed her opinion. Kangana Ranaut thereafter made a video in which she stated that she was merely expressing her own opinions and that she does not care about the journalists. She has worked hard to reach her current position, which is not to be undermined by the journalists.
However, brazen and bold that Kangana is, the incident with the journalists and their reaction reeks of hypocrisy. Celebrities in the past have done much much worse to the journalists, so much so that criminal complaints were filed against them, and yet, the behavior was excused because of ‘stardom’.
Kangana Ranaut has clearly been targeted only because she is not one of those who are eulogized as ‘stars’ by the mainstream media. Kangana Ranaut isn’t a ‘star’ is the proper sense for them. She is famous for airing her views without the fear of being politically correct, something the pseudo-liberals and the secular journalists cannot tolerate. Time and again, she has been in the limelight for her opposing views, which is looked down upon by the elites. She has taken a stand against the prevalence of dynasties in the industry, and also the fact that women actors are paid much less than their male counterparts, facts which are constantly ignored and accepted in the industry. In a liberal Bollywood, she is unabashedly right, the fan of the man hated by many in the Bollywood. Thus, she has become an easy target of the media.
However, the Entertainment Journalists’ Guild has ended up exposing its own hypocrisy by taking the unduly extreme action against Kangana Ranaut. If its intention was to force an apology from Kangana Ranaut, the Guild has clearly failed. She is showing no signs of budging under pressure. In fact, she is firm on her stand and has made it clear that she is going to fight it out with those who were targeting her without any valid ground.
