Did Karan Johar & Co Go Too Far In Their Kangana-Baiting At  IIFA?

Days after Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan took on Kangana Ranaut at an international awards  function in New York , Bollywood is in a state of shock wondering why on earth  Johar decided mock the actress so blatantly on stage.

A leading actress who sat in one of the front rows at the event said the whole skit on Kangana “came  like  a bolt from the blue.”

“We were like…why is he doing this? Why make fun of Kangana at an international event? She is a National award winning reputed actress with a very staunch fan-base. So okay…she made comments on nepotism that Karan did not like. It doesn’t give him the right to humiliate her on an international platform,” said the  actress , herself an “outsider” like Kangana.

A prominent filmmaker known to keep away from controversies says “bitching”  is a part of the backroom culture in  Bollywood.  “If you go to a party at Karan’s or Shah Rukh’s , the entertainment is , mimicking and ridiculing everyone from Lata Mangeshkar to Kangana Ranaut. Emboldened by success or whatever you may call it, Karan decided to  bring the bitching out on  a public platform.It backfired.”

Apparently  Saif whom Kangana gave a “hellish time” during Rangoon, was game  for some  “light hearted fun at Kangana’s expense.”  But Varun Dhawan was not comfortable with the idea.

“He went along with it only for Karan’s sake. Now his father(filmmaker David Dhawan) is very pissed off for the embarrassment  caused by public Kangana-baiting.Varun is mortified.”

While public sympathy towards Kangana in the ongoing Kangana-Johar war has swung fully towards her after this incident, Kangana’s choices as far as Bollywood is concerned have narrowed further.Among the heroes that she can’t/won’t work with we now have Salman Khan, Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Sanjay Dutt,  Ajay Devgan, Saif Ali Khan,Shahid Kapoor and Varun Dhawan.

Not too many filmmakers in Mumbai are willing to work with her. Even Hansal Mehta who can’t stop singing her praises is according to an informed source,  “up to his neck with her interference” during the making of Simran.

Cleverly Kangana has announced her resolve to turn director and has moved to the South to play the lead in the Telugu-Hindi Krish-directed historical bio-pic on the Rani Of Jhansi.

But that too, one hears, is a seriously troubled project which shows no signs of taking off.