Why Kangana giving it back to Karan Johar spoke for all women

Call it witchcraft, talent or something else, Kangana Ranaut has managed to make her debut in Koffee with Karan with what was one of the most fiery episodes in Indian TV history.

Bollywood elite are steeped in sexism and it takes a Kangana to spill the beans on the grim realities of show business.

She made "unsuitable boy" Karan Johar - the host of the show - look truly unsuitable with her unforgiving remarks. She calls a spade a spade without batting an eyelid.

This makes me wonder, if a "psychopath" or a "witch" looks and sounds as poised, balanced and self-assured as Kangana, we must all aspire to be like her.

She is a woman embroiled in controversies, slut-shamed for her love interests, and constantly judged and mocked for being the middle-class outsider who took Bollywood by a storm. Despite that it bothers her, she means business.

She has no qualms accepting that friendships and relationships within the industry have not worked well for her career and she has learnt her lessons well.

In her I see every vulnerable woman who treads beyond her comfort zone and fights, yet balances the sensibilities she is fed since childhood. She is among the women who strive to set their own morals, working their way to the top through sexist spaces - one step at a time.

Kangana debut on the show left the host, and her co-actor Saif Ali Khan, dumbfounded owing to her dripping-with-honesty statements.

She does not hold back from calling Karan Johar an elitist, or telling him that he encourages nepotism and once ridiculed her talent and personality - and how the criticism got her to claim her fame.

She raised the debate that has remained buried under the blanket of the camaraderie between the first families of Bollywood and the Khan brigade. Not being a part of the mutual admiration society, yet being on top of her game is an art.

And, there are quite a few lessons to be learnt from the "queen". So go ahead and awaken the latent psychopath in you:

1. Define your morals: Women must make their own rules, set their own boundaries. Kangana refuses big bucks because certain endorsements may not resonate with her. She turns down Fair and Lovely ads and films where she is not the lead actor. Taking a cue, women must learn to say no. And, stick to our guns.

2. Call a spade a spade: Learn the art of speaking the right words with the right amount of sophistication. Kangana does not mince her words and jaws drop when she says she has been ridiculed by Karan Johar for her language skills on the same show she is now gracing as a guest.

She said, "If it wasn't for your rejections and mocking and all those... of course you made fun of my English on this and you made fun of everything. I'm not complaining about it. I'm just saying. Somewhere these things do drive you."

Not that we did not know Karan Johar to suffer verbal diarrhoea, but it takes Kangana to say that out loud. Nothing in the world is more intimidating to a man than a woman who speaks her mind fearlessly.

3. Confidence and conviction: Kangana drank coffee shots to skinny-dipping and being sexually active and experimental. And then she drank to being jealous too. "The fact that Dangal made so much money...like so much?" Gulp that.

Mostly, she drank to being an ordinary woman unabashedly embracing her flaws and strengths, but many who watched her on the show needed their own set of drinks.

She also said, "A girl has kissed me. I was in California and there was a Spanish girl who fell in love with me. I was drunk and she kissed me." But, she isn't gay.

She said she fails to understand why people hide relationship statuses, clearly hinting at every celeb who has graced the Koffee couch. Because, everyone is "just friends" with everybody else.

Take a moment to imagine a world full of Kanganas. Hurrah!

4. Creative conflict is okay: Kangana said, "If a set does not have creative conflict, then something is not going right. It's about collaborating and diving into it.

I think my directors really like that about me. And the ones who don't, I don't like them either." 

Too many of us would take things lying down for the fear of being slammed. Kangana can fight her directors to better her work. She bagged two national awards. What stops us from allowing ourselves to be heard, for starters?

5. Avoid controversy: Kangana knows how to remain impassive and avoid controversy.

When Johar wanted to get a reaction from Kangana on Alia Bhatt's comments about her looks, Kangana focused on battles worth fighting. She said, "Alia's response was to Karan's question on Who would you like to stalk? Karan is putting words in her mouth! And now Saif, you're putting words in my mouth to say something."

The about-to be-stirred-controversy rests in peace.

6. Channel emotions: With all the shaming the woman has suffered, for all the fingers pointed at her, for being in the eye of the storm for her personal choices, not once did we see the woman cry or lose her cool. She let her work speak and that is exactly what women must learn.

7. Normal is cool. Attitude is bad: Kangana showed Karan Johar his place, on his own show when she said, "Karan Johar is a star and he has given me a lot of unnecessary attitude...In my biopic, if ever it's made, you'll play that stereotypical Bollywood biggie, who is like you know...very snooty and completely intolerant towards outsiders, flagbearer of nepotism, the movie mafia."

Cue in jaw drop, once more. "Also, I think with stardom and this profession comes a lot of abnormalities in terms of how your life can be. I try and be as normal as I can."

One minute silence for all the abnormalities in the show business.

If this is "witchcraft", all women would do well to follow suit.