Nepotism 2.0 with Karan Johar: What happened since the N-Bomb on Kangana Ranaut at IIFA 2017

The Karan Johar vs Kangana Ranaut Nepotism debate is back in the spotlight thanks to the IIFA Awards 2017 last week.

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Nepotism 2.0 with Karan Johar: What happened since the N-Bomb on Kangana Ranaut at IIFA 2017
Karan Johar and Kangana Ranaut

If you have been following the goings on in Bollywood, you'd know that the word 'nepotism' has been in common parlance. Every single time you think that the issue is all over and the debate has come to an end and the initial participants have moved on to something else, you are in for a rude shock. The word 'nepotism' has been around since time immemorial in Bollywood, but before Kangana Ranaut, it hardly had the kind of impact and recall value that it does now.

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The nepotism debate saw yet another ugly development over the last weekend. Bollywood made its way to the shores of the Atlantic to celebrate this year's International Indian Film Academy awards - IIFA awards - and on the IIFA stage, all hell broke loose. Nepotism made a guest appearance during the show and soon became the cynosure of the IIFA weekend. What transpired on the IIFA 2017 stage came to be called a 'crass, tacky display of how shamelessly nepotistic Bollywood is'. Twitter boiled. Social media set the participants of this 'Nepotism Rocks' act on fire.

Before we go into where exactly we stand on the Nepotism 2.0 debate right now, here's a look at how we reached here.

BEGINNING OF THE DRAMA

It all began when Kangana Ranaut and Saif Ali Khan reached Karan Johar's talk show Koffee With Karan to promote their film Rangoon. They were later joined by Shahid Kapoor too. The episode went on to become the most-discussed one in probably the history of the talk show. Among many other jibes at Karan Johar, Kangana called him the 'flag-bearer of nepotism in Bollywood'. Everything was okay till the end credits rolled. Thereafter began the entire drama that we are now up to our eyeballs in.

'KANGANA IS PLAYING THE VICTIM CARD'

Soon after this episode of the show aired on television, Karan Johar took off to the London School of Economics to participate in a discussion. He lashed out at Kangana for calling him the 'flag-bearer of nepotism in Bollywood', adding that she should leave Bollywood if she found it so bad'. Karan said, "You cannot be this victim at every given point of time who has a sad story to tell about how you have been terrorised by the bad world of the industry, leave it."

He also said why he chose to not say anything on his show when Kangana dropped the N-bomb, "She was my guest and I had to hear what she had to say. She has a right to have an opinion. When she says 'flag-bearer of nepotism', I just want to say to her, I am glad she knows what it all means. I don't think she has understood the entire meaning of the term."

'NEPOSPASMS' AND KJO'S CASTING CHOICES

The Ae Dil Hai Mushkil filmmaker did not stop there. He took up the pen and wrote a long post on his blog on how he would obviously cast Shah Rukh Khan's son in a movie if he could gain from it.

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"While we're on the subject, may I point out that while we can (and have) put the star on screen, we cannot make the audience arrive. So if it is a nepotistic world, we're not the only ones guilty of it. Taken a look at any entertainment website recently? They're full of star kids. It's all about Sara (Ali Khan) and Jhanvi (Kapoor) and Aryan (Khan) and Aarav (Kumar). They step out and they're photographed, they're the ultimate clickbait," he wrote.

"We're not NGOs! We are businesses with bottom lines and budgets. And tomorrow if I want to launch Shah Rukh Khan's son because he's Shah Rukh Khan's son and I believe I can gain from it, why won't I? I run a company, it's a balance of commerce and art, and both matter," Karan continued.

Of course, Kangana was not the one to take this lying down.

KANGANA RANAUT RESPONDS

On a show, Kangana Ranaut decided to finally share her stand on Karan Johar's blog and pretty much everything that he called her and spoke about her since the ill-fated Koffee With Karan episode. She called KJo's blog post 'more of a brainwash than being objective'. She then went on to say how she was not affected by all talk at all.

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"Honestly, the debate did not affect me at all. I am quite self-sufficient at this point of time in my life as I have also launched my own production house. I want to propagate my story and there should be nothing wrong about it. When Karan Johar posted a blog on nepotism, I felt it was more of a brainwash than being objective," she said.

Kangana's words rubbed Karan Johar the wrong way, yet again.

KARAN CALLS HIMSELF THE FLAG-BEARER OF NEPOTISM AT INDIA TODAY CONCLAVE 2017

Karan Johar did not take long to hit back at Kangana Ranaut. At the India Today Conclave this year, the filmmaker was at his sarcastic best. So on the one hand while he admitted that Kangana 'killed it' on his show; on the other, he also used an acid-dipped "I'm the flag-bearer of nepotism! Don't you know I won that award?" as a retort when asked whether he was guilty of nepotism.

After this, most people thought that the nepotism debate had fizzled out, never to show its ugly face again. And even though there were tertiary reactions from the film industry members once in a while, Karan Johar and Kangana Ranaut mostly stayed away from the debate.

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Till the last weekend, when all hell broke loose on the IIFA 2017 stage. Here's where we are now:

WHAT HAPPENED AT IIFA 2017?

On July 15, during the IIFA awards, Varun Dhawan joined hosts Saif Ali Khan and Karan Johar on stage to receive his trophy for the Best Performance in A Comic Role. Saif joked that Dhawan had made it big in the industry because of his father, filmmaker David Dhawan.

"You are here because of your papa," Saif quipped.

Varun said, "And you're here because of your mummy (veteran actress Sharmila Tagore)."

Karan promptly added, "I am here because of my papa (late filmmaker Yash Johar)."

They then said in unison, "Nepotism rocks". What unfolded on stage after that was even worse. The trio broke into the song Bole Choodiyaan Bole Kangana, and soon Karan said, "Yeh Kangana bahut bolti hai."

Once the incident made its way to social media, there was an explosion. Over tweet after tweet and post after post, people went on to criticise Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan for their crass 'nepotism rocks' act.

VARUN DHAWAN'S APOLOGY

Varun Dhawan was the first among the trio to tweet out an apology. The actor wrote, "I express my apology and regret... I am extremely sorry if I have offended or hurt anyone with that act (sic)."

KARAN JOHAR'S CLARIFICATION

A clarification from Karan Johar followed. In an interview this morning, Karan said how he has been 'ungraceful' to Kangana.

"This is something that I need to say and to clarify. Of course, I do not believe that nepotism rocks. Of course, I believe that only talent and hard work rocks. What we said was meant to be a joke, and I think it was misplaced, misunderstood and I think it went wrong. I regret it. The idea of that joke was entirely mine, so I take total onus. I think we went a bit far with the Kangana mention," said Karan.

SAIF ALI KHAN'S INTERVIEW

Saif Ali Khan too shared his point of view about the entire IIFA fiasco. He told Firstpost in an interview, "I respect Kangana tremendously for what she's achieved, for coming up the hard way. We're a mutual admiration society. She also agrees that despite having illustrious parents, I too have had an uneven beginning in Bombay. I understand what Kangana means by her stance on nepotism, though I have a slightly different take on it. People knew who I was because of my parents but that didn't necessarily give me an easy ride. Look at the spate of terrible movies I've starred in and you know that phase lasted for a long while.

He went on to say how people find it easy to confuse genetics with nepotism. "It's easy to confuse nepotism with genetics. Maybe there is something in the genes too that makes many of Raj Kapoor's descendants actors or Pataudis cricketers. I think it's actually eugenics and genetics that's coming into play," said the Phantom actor.

He also clarified how the is particular award show 'wasn't his smartest one'. He said, "I have hosted other awards shows before and they have been fun and cheeky. This particular instance, I'll admit, was not my smartest one. We tried to make the most of a poor script but I do realise that some of the jokes were unfunny. I was quite disturbed after the show. I think the humour could've been of a higher calibre given that Karan and I were hosting it. It's not befitting of what my work has been, and it's certainly not the kind of work I'm currently doing."

NO WORD FROM KANGANA

As of now, Kangana hasn't spoken out about the incident.

With IIFA 2017, the nepotism debate is back in the spotlight. And it will probably take a while for Kangana and Karan to bury the hatchet this time around.

(The writer tweets as @ananya116)

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