PM Modi, Uniter-in-Chief: How the Prime Minister brought together two unlikely foes
The Modi wave even calms Bollywood’s rough waters and ends the famous Kangana Ranaut-Karan Johar feud, if only for the duration of the PM's grand swearing-in.
After Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony, did you wake up this morning to check if the sun indeed rose from the East? No, not to check the dawn of a new democracy — but because Bollywood’s biggest foes seem to have buried the hatchet at the oath ceremony.
Actor Kangana Ranaut and filmmaker Karan Johar finally have a common denominator — Narendra Modi.
Yes, the same man who was recently called the 'Divider-in-Chief' by an American magazine with a penchant for giving OTT adjectives to Indian political leaders (they once called Manmohan Singh an ‘underachiever’).
But now, the Johar-Ranaut rivalry seems to have simmered down to low-flame, courtesy Narendra Modi — Uniter-in-Chief.
Ancient Her-story
The Johar-Ranaut feud started on a caffeinated note at the filmmaker’s talk show, Koffee with Karan, in 2017. The actor attended the show with Saif Ali Khan, to promote their movie Rangoon and confirmed what we suspected about Johar all along, being a rich brat who loves to star other rich brats to play rich brats in his movies about rich brats. Touché!
Ranaut also called him out for making fun of her accent and gave him a moniker that he just can't shake off — 'Flagbearer of Nepotism'.
Naturally, even though the episode must have racked up massive TRPs, Johar wasn't too kicked about it.
Later that year, Kangana attended a show hosted by the filmmaker and the duo proceeded to hug it out for the cameras, but that was just a ruse of sorts because when asked what Karan offers to his guests, she replied dryly, “Zeher pilata hai, mujhse puchho” (Karan serves poison to his guests, ask me).
Even today, the Kalank filmmaker continues to be a favourite topic for her sister Rangoli Chandel’s caustic tweets.
Karan not only takes huge percentage of every artist earnings who he launches or works with and sends to Matrix bt also tells them what to wear and who to sleep with, percentage I understand lot f Hollywood production houses do that but always forcing actors to patch up...(contd) https://t.co/NN9HMx3mpA
— Rangoli Chandel (@Rangoli_A) May 26, 2019
'Modi wave' in Bollywood
But right when we thought swords would be drawn, the Modi wave played peacemaker. While Kangana has often spoken about her respect for the Prime Minister, calling him the “the rightful leader of this democracy" and cooking pakodas to celebrate his win, Karan Johar was part of the Bollywood delegation that met Modi to discuss the film industry's needs.
And finally, the Modi wave managed to calm down Bollywood's stormy waters! But will it last? Take a look:
Ranaut and Johar are mum on the issue but the actor’s sister may have a clue that good tidings are ahead when she posted a slew of smiling emojis, saying Modi managed to bring the two feuding stars together.
???????????????? https://t.co/l7wPIxIKwV
— Rangoli Chandel (@Rangoli_A) May 30, 2019
Talk of unlikely alliances at a time of one party-rule!