We meet actor Kangana Ranaut when the season’s first showers hit the city. ‘Look, I got the storm to Delhi,’ she says amid peals of laughter. This is just days after her now-famous spat with a newsperson at the Mumbai launch of her new film, Judgmentall Hai Kya, and shows how she is just as spirited, even if misunderstood. The ugly episode turned sordid with the Entertainment Journalists’ Guild banning her for her behaviour and overreach but the actor, who has made bold choices both on and off the screen, says she just vented what had been simmering inside as a recipient of a sustained personal campaign by vested interests. Truth be told, the media has always been on her side for questioning status quo, challenging stereotypes and opening up fresh conversations. Which is why when everybody wondered if she had indeed gone too far this time, she has turned to the media to set the record straight. She promptly tells us that except a handful of lobbyists posing as journalists, she had no problems with the fourth estate. She doesn’t mind the criticism, has enough gumption to take it and can even have a cup of coffee with journalists but surely she would not tolerate personal attacks. In a conversation with Rinku Ghosh, she presents...

• What happened precisely to set you on a confrontationist path with the media?

Let me clarify that I have never been at war with them; even now I have no problems. In fact, I have had a very healthy relationship with journalists. I have had differences of opinion with scribes, critics and even had a laugh over a cup of tea despite them. I respect their area of work, don’t think they are unfair and accept their right to comment. But that dynamic has changed over the last couple of years as I sense a deliberate attempt to humiliate me as an artist. This consistent slander has indeed affected me. I can even analyse the changing interest in me as a subject. I was struggling since 2006-7 and till 2013, I was irrelevant. Then came Queen and the media was on my side. It’s just that when I stood up against Hrithik Roshan, Karan Johar and some other biggies that I noticed that they began taking sides. Of course, I must admit that most of them even stood by me for taking a stand and daring to speak up about what needed to be spoken for a long time. But post that, things began to change. Some of it was voluntary and some of it was non-voluntary. That’s when I realised that the movie mafia had got to the media. In Mumbai, that is how it is. The parties, press invites, gifts, travel vouchers, everything is controlled by allied networks of the star, studios and producers. I don’t really mind it so long as it doesn’t involve me or target me without context. Besides, I also know that only 60 to 70 people working in the entertainment media and as film journalists are movie mafia-friendly and may have their compulsions, the rest are totally fair.

But over the last two years, there has been nothing but negative Press about me. Every morning I wake up with new nonsense like either I have broken somebody’s head or a set has come to a standstill because I have showed up late or I am doing this and that. It was just nasty PR. And then there was the row over my directing, literally taking over Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi. All these seemed vindictive and pre-meditated rather than going into the facts. Why don’t people realise that film business is serious and has rules? How can I take money from the studio as an actor and start directing the project on my own unless I am asked to? It just isn’t allowed. But they made it look like I am this control freak who’s bending everything to suit herself. Everything I did, be it a brand endorsement or attending a party, was panned through the same prism.

With nasty trolling day in and day out, the confrontation was actually building up; it’s like being abused and not being able to share it with anyone. You may not like me but don’t humiliate an artiste for the sake of it. And that day what was welling inside me came out because I don’t meet those people who write about me every day. Honestly, I am so happy that I brought this tension out.

• How badly has all this affected your work?

It has undoubtedly affected a fair assessment of my work. When I see my work and when I see somebody else’s mediocre work pitched against mine, and they being made to feel a superbrand despite being so basic in their craft, I wonder “what’s going on here?” In the past, too, many in the media have been slapped and abused and somebody I just confronted became headline news? How do you explain this except that there’s a lobby ganging up against me. What have I done to offend you in such a way? You can criticise a film, you can criticise a performance… that is entirely different and your prerogative but you cannot be personal. But I am happy that the masks have come off the movie mafia operatives and they stand exposed. Their numbers are so few that they are actually nothing but a drop in the ocean.

• You have changed the contours of the industry by challenging established practice and questioning status quo. Does it ever feel that it is a lonely fight at the top?  Yes you have stardom, you have recognition of your work, you have people that will not desert you, you will even survive. But do you get tired?

It’s anything but lonely because there are so many people that support me. Even in conflict, there are so many people around me. I don’t think it’s lonely at all but, yes, all this has made my life very hectic. It’s just so draining to be entangled in all this mess and then 10 days down the line, laughing with the same person. You’ll be like, “God those 20 days were so bad.”

You know what upset me? That the confrontation story came as an afterthought. The Press conference was fine and if any mediaperson felt offended or didn’t like me, he/she could have just left. But then to go back and escalate a tiff into an issue that necessitated banning an artiste in her own country was just too much. Haven’t stars had run-ins with the media before? Then when videos began circulating on social media, I, too, retaliated with the holistic video clips. It wasn’t my intention to begin with. But the ban meant that the movie mafia was working overtime.

• Are you saying the film industry is still subject to lobbyists, groupism and set opinions? At one level there is creative democracy, with so much happening at the content level. Yet, on the other side, you believe that women are still soft targets of chauvinistic structures?

I would say the grip is loosening and now women make sense even commercially. See the spectrum of leading ladies — from Neena Gupta to Tabu to Kangana Ranaut and Alia Bhatt. The arc is so different. The flesh and blood women disappeared between the 50s and 60s where we had Nargisji and Waheedaji. The objectification of women began from the 1970s and continued for such a long time that we forgot what we once were and became just a pretty face with flowing hair. I remember when I did Gangster, everyone told me, “You know too much acting for your own good.” Some of them even cited examples of magnificent failures of capable actors. I don’t want to take names of respectful actors but they were certainly not commercially successful ones. I was told I would be like them if I acted too much. To be a newcomer in the industry at that time and seeing things change radically in the course of 10-13 years, has been a revelation. There is not just a change in the spectrum of leading ladies but also leading men, be it Rajkummar Rao, Irrfan Khan and Ranveer Singh. And it is because this bandwidth is ever expansive now that the coterie is losing its grip. That is exactly why I am able to survive.

• Film families continue to have a kind of aura like royals. Do you believe that the industry has truly been democratised?

Other than film families, even the studio system has you hostage. If you work out a contract with a big studio, they take 30-40 per cent of your earnings. They promote you in a way that you become a milking machine. They milk you and when they are done with you, they throw you. It happened with me post Queen. To be honest I would have preferred a situation like that to begin with. In 2006, had a studio groomed and promoted me, put me on all platforms, got me brands and then taken 30 per cent, even milked me for five-10 years, I would not have minded. That works for a struggler. Then at least I could be on my own in my mature years. For whatever reason, it didn’t happen. The big production houses came to me only when I was a legitimate star and the highest paid actress. They still wanted to take 30-40 per cent of my earnings. Then I had to pay 30 per cent to the government in taxes. And eventually I found that I was not left with anything. So I didn’t sign up with any studio. I became my own entity. And then I started to do well... A lot of people now want to follow this system.

• How are they paying women actors now after you and your peers raised the issue of parity?

It depends on the individual, the kind of film you do and your contribution to the project. For example, Manikarnika and Dhaakad are very women-driven. Then there is the issue of scale and budgets. There are big action sequences in some, demanding a greater outlay than something like Judgementall Hai Kya or Panga. It cannot be seen from the same lens. But I can speak for myself. Earlier, I would begrudge working 365 days in a year and wonder why my blood and sweat don’t have any value compared to male actors. It hurt me. It doesn’t anymore because I have realised that there is a reason why male stars have lasted 25 to 30 years. They must have done something right. They have built their brand in such a way that mathematics favours them. They have had a far better business plan and blueprint than women actors ever had. They became so self-absorbed in creating an economy around themselves that they actually started pairing themselves opposite fresh faces. So the model was very clear, always latch on to a new face to revive your youthful appeal. That has worked for them. It’s clever of them. And that sustainability has given them their price. I now understand that.

• Tell us about Judgmentall Hai Kya, does its punchline ‘trust no one’ seem apt for you at the time?

It’s a mad world of Bobby Grewal Battliwala, a Punjabi Parsi, who is very different. She is “mental”, which is not a politically correct term these days, so let’s say she is eccentric. But she is not a psycho for sure. She is struggling with a dissociative identity disorder. She identifies with a situation to an extent that she really cannot decipher whether it’s her own situation or that of others. For instance, if you are getting married, she would start involving herself so deep that she forgets it’s your marriage or that you would have a say. So she revels in her world and the film is how that unfolds many things in her life. It actually gets quite exciting to a point when a murder takes place and where that takes her. The good thing about it is the dichotomy of the “normal” and “mental” people. So Raj is playing somebody who’s normal. She’s mad and has no benefit of doubt. Normal people can get away with so much because they are presumed to behave in a certain way but these other ones can have so much insight. We judge people without knowing them at all.

• You have trained as a filmmaker in New York and have filled up some gaps in  Manikarnika. What is your next move?

Actually, my heart lies in film-making. I want to be a filmmaker.

• Was that always the case?

I think so, yes. Just that I wasn’t aware of it. When I became an actress, I wasn’t really crazy about dancing with heroes. I was like “yeah sure, get lost.” I was not even the kind that would go ecstatic with “aaahh, I am living my dream of becoming an actress.” This is not me, has never been. I was 23 when I directed a short film and I knew this is it. I was so comfortable in the room, panning frames. That comes naturally to me, which is actually very strange. A lot of people say, “You are such a good performer, we wouldn’t want to lose you as an actor.” But I am so comfortable in the role of a filmmaker. An actor is always taking instructions... always. Always feeling unsure... You are just a drop in the ocean. A filmmaker has a natural quality of leadership. I can set my film under water, in the sky, in the fire. I have the very freedom of waking up and writing a scene. I actually prefer to get stories from others and then develop my own perspective on them. I just want to take a story and depict it. May be I’ll not be making money, doing three films a year. May be people won’t remember my face. May be the grey strand will show in my hair. But I don’t mind all of that. The very freedom of doing your own thing is unparalleled.

Photo: Pankaj Kumar