Mumbai
National award-winning actress Kangana Ranaut, who is gearing up for her upcoming release ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’, says that despite having faced constant criticism from the film fraternity, she feels confident and empowered because of the love and appreciation received from the audience and her fans. “I think the way people, I mean audience love me that empowers me. The way my fans love my acting, my personality it gives me confidence. Industry wale jaye tel lene (let the film industry go to hell)…People’s love empowers me. I am really humbled,” said Kangana while talking about the criticism she faced from the film industry.
Kangana was addressing media persons during the trailer launch of her upcoming film where she also spoke candidly about the film’s title change. As the original title ‘Mental Hai Kya’, was considered ‘insensitive’, the makers decided to go ahead with a title change and adhere to the Censor Board’s criteria of muting the word in the film. While the actress previously said the team was happy to oblige with the changes, at the trailer launch event, she accused the nepotism lobby of these bumps in the road but claimed she has learnt to deal with it. Kangana also pointed out that Salman Khan’s 2012 film, a remake of the Telugu film ‘Stalin’, was also originally titled ‘Mental’. However, she claimed that when she wanted to use the word in her film, it was “banned.”
Nonetheless, the actress laughed it off with the audience and assured that the film didn’t demean mentally challenged people and wasn’t offensive in any way. She even proudly said that the Censor Board panel was impressed with the film and was happy to give it a U/A certificate.
At the launch event, the actress was accompanied by screenplay writer Kanika Dhillon, director Prakash Kovelamudi among others. Due to heavy rain, lead actor Rajkummar Rao could not attend the event.
Speaking about the story of ‘Judgmental Hai Kya’, Kangana said, “I think the revolution in the mainstream cinema came from “Tanu Weds Manu”, wherein a heroine is shown in a real way. Tanu knows how to play around with boys but she is not a vamp.” “In the same way, Bobby, in this film, is going through mental illness but she is not sitting in a corner and sobbing about it,” she added.
Talking about Kangana’s character Bobby, in the film, Kanika Dhillon said, “honestly, because of Kangana’s outspoken nature, I do not think there is any other actress in the industry that could have pulled off the character the way she did.”
Taking a page out of her personal experiences, Kangana shared, “There was a phase in my life when people openly tried to shame me and said that I was mad, I was on medication. Even though I wasn’t, I replied to them: “so what?” I would not have felt ashamed even if I were on medication.”
“However, when Kanika narrated the script to me, I felt more compassionate towards the character because the society also calls “Bobby” a mad girl. It became more relatable for me. Honestly, I am okay with things that people say,” said the actress.
