Is Kartik Aaryan too Hindu to survive in liberal Bollywood?

The ouster of Kartik Aaryan by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions has once again reinvigorated the insider-outsider debate which has been plaguing Mumbai’s film industry for the past year now. The unceremonious sacking of the actor from Dostana 2 has raised many eyebrows, but not all are looking at a very straightforward reason for his sacking. Perhaps, it is possible, that Kartik Aaryan was just too proud a Hindu and too nationalist an Indian to be part of the liberal circus of Mumbai which many like to call Bollywood.

Kartik Aaryan was among the handful of celebrities who were happy with the news of the Ram Janmabhoomi dispute being resolved by the Supreme Court, which had in 2019, sided with the Hindus. In a cryptic message posted on Twitter, Kartik Aaryan had back then posted a breakfast picture with the caption, “Aaj breakfast mein sabr ka phal khaya.” Aaryan was referring to the Hindi proverb; “Sabra ka fal meetha hota hai”, which translates to “the result of patience is always sweet.”

Subsequent to the military clash between India and China last year, Kartik Aaryan had dissociated himself from a Chinese mobile brand – Oppo. The cost of the same, according to reports, was a multi-crore deal between him and the smartphone company based out of China. Prior to pulling out of Oppo, Kartik Aaryan was its brand ambassador. Apart from such major indications of him being a proud Hindu and a nationalist, there have been other occasions when the man has not shied away from wearing his culture on his sleeve.

It is quite possible that Kartik Aaryan is being targeted by Bollywood for his strong Hindu antecedents. Furthermore, Aaryan too is an ‘outsider’ in Mumbai’s film industry, which makes him all the more target of the nepotists like Karan Johar, who have made a career out of launching star kids alone. Several reports have claimed that Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions has not only fired actor Kartik Aaryan from the ongoing movie project but also decided to not work with him again in the future.

Read more: Karan Johar targets another ‘outsider’ Kartik Aaryan, netizens call for Boycott of Bollywood

Dostana 2 is being directed by Collin D’Cunha, and it has Janhvi Kapoor and debutant Lakshya Lalwani in leading roles, along with Kartik Aaryan. However, after Kartik shot the movie for 20 days and was preparing for the next part of the shoot, some creative differences between the actor and Karan Johar arose which led to the former’s ouster as Johar did not like his authority being undermined.