‘Queen’ of candour, Kangana Ranaut recently spoke of how she feared for her life at a time when her spat with actor Hrithik Roshan had become public.
In an interview with film journalist Rajeev Masand, the star spoke of how unsafe women in the film industry were and recalled the case of the Malayalam actress who had been abducted and sexually assaulted to emphasise what she was saying.
It was allegedly at the behest of Malayalam film star Dileep that the crime was committed by hired goons against the Malayalam leading lady. Dileep was arrested for plotting the abduction and sexual assault. The actress was abducted and allegedly molested and raped in a car by six men.
In the interview, Kangana said she and her sister, who is a survivor of an acid attack, used to get threatening calls when a spat about her relationship with Hrithik Roshan became widely discussed by the public.
Kangana said that even those in the industry refused to believe her and asked her to apologise to Hrithik Roshan and his father Rakesh Roshan, saying she had made false allegations.
The Queen star said, “There are so many things that happen in extramarital (relationships) things, really. Look at what happened in the Malayalam (actress) case. What that man did to her for a complaint to his wife (presumably about his extra-marital affair with actress Kavya Madhavan whom he later married). He got her raped, got her videos circulated. All this only happened now but girls get pregnant, they get shot, they get killed for things like these. Of course, I feared for my life.”
Kangana said that she was very scared as Hrithik and Rakesh Roshan were big personalities and they were in the industry even before her. She said that Hrithik had prepared for two years to put her behind bars. But the actress stood by her words and did not apologise to anyone. She said that in fact she was waiting for an apology from them for slandering her.
The industry, which looks glamorous from outside, is dirty beneath, she said. Male chauvinism is rampant in this industry too. It takes a lot of courage to highlight the discrimination women face in the film industry, she added.