Kangana Ranaut praises Javed Akhtar for telling Pakistanis that India will never forget 26/11: ‘Ghar mein ghus ke maara’

While attending an event in memory of the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Akhtar was asked to take back with him messages of peace, and tell Indians that Pakistanis welcomed him with love. He said that as someone who witnessed firsthand the horror of the 26/11 attacks in Mumbai, it would be wrong to expect Indians to ignore the fact that the perpetrators of those attacks are still living freely in Pakistan. “The attackers weren’t from Norway, or from Egypt. They are still present in your country, so you should not be offended if an Indian complains about this,” he said in Urdu. He also pointed out that while India has hosted several Pakistani artists in the past, Pakistan has never hosted Lata Mangeshkar.

Kangana praising the lyricist is unexpected, considering their history. In his November 2020 defamation complaint against Kangana, Akhtar had claimed that the actor had dragged his name into a television interview about the death of actor Sushant Singh Rajput, and said that he was a member of a Bollywood ‘coterie’. Kangana had filed a counter complaint against him for alleged ‘extortion and criminal intimidation’. The case is sub judice.

She had also accused Akhtar of forcing her to write a written apology to Hrithik Roshan, with whom she was involved in a public falling out at the time.