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We live in an age where if you consume movies, you can’t help but also receive a lot of information about the people associated with those movies. All the ‘news’ that comes to you via your smartphones, subconsciously influences your choices and ends up defining what you truly like. The statements made by actors, who are the face of the movies, affects the footfalls in theatres and their eventual likability among the audience. This has nothing to do with the characters that they play on screen, or the stories they tell, it is an intangible connection that the audience finds with their favorite stars that ultimately defines whose films will last for posterity. It was this connection that Kangana Ranaut somehow cracked in her initial years, and the way she did it made her the ‘feminist icon of the new generation’. But, things changed drastically as the years moved on and we are now left in a place where it’s almost impossible to revisit the films of that ‘icon’ without taking her views in account.
In 2013, Kangana, in an interview with Anupama Chopra, spoke unabashedly about doing films like Rascals or Double Dhamaal because she needed the money to survive. The actor opened up about waiting in her vanity van all day long to deliver one simple line in front of the camera when she was fully aware that no one really cared, because those weren’t the kind of movies where anyone cared. Her candor was refreshing and she became the rulebreaker. Ten years later, we now know that a celebrity’s image is carefully curated to highlight their USP. The movies they pick are quite in line with that image and even when they are not, the many interviews they give before a film’s release reinforce the said image just so the audience knows where to slot them. Kangana, in this era, was the woman who came from a small town and had challenged the big players of the industry. Much like the tea seller from a small town who challenged the political system of the country, this story was the flavour of the season.
It is almost impossible to separate the art from its artist and in Kangana’s case, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. For years, she stayed away from social media but when she wanted to make a point, she made sure she was heard. Her calling Karan Johar the ‘flagbearer of nepotism’ was a pop culture moment that will go down in Indian cinema’s history. The stories about her relationships, her being an unorthodox collaborator were regular media fodder much like it is for most celebrities of her generation but things shifted drastically when Kangana got on social media, and soon had something to say about everything.
We live in the social media age where everyone has the right to broadcast their opinion. In Kangana’s case, however, the statements soon melded into noise as she let everyone know where she stands on any topic under the sun. With every film that she released since 2017, Kangana opened up a baggage of her personal stories that varied from her relationships to her difficulties with the crew of the film. The stories were soon not limited to just films. She had a take on everything which left her audience debating on the issues, but also about the actor. And surreptitiously, the art and the artist converged toegther.
The audience, as we know, isn’t always political when they choose the films they want to watch. If that was the case then Pathaan wouldn’t have done the box office numbers it did, and Samrat Prithviraj would have been the biggest hit of the year but Kangana’s political beliefs now influence her movies and her off-screen personality. The curated image that was created ten years ago has now been refurbished and that has left her original fans confused. Kangana might not be appearing on many reality shows to promote her movies, or she might not be getting photographed walking in an out of every Bollywood party but her presence is ubiquitous. This could have some impact on her future films but muting all of that noise and rewatching her older films is tough.
There is immense power in social media but how one chooses to use that power is up to them. In Kangana’s case, she uses it as a platform to broadcast her beliefs. Those who found her voice refreshing after that 2013 interview have mixed thoughts but still fondly look back at the time when a stellar actor broke into the scene and every word she spoke held some weight.
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