Hansal Mehta replied to Kangana Ranaut’s Jib: ‘Good to be good soon’

02/02/2016: Director Hansal Mehta in New Delhi | Photo Credit: Sudarson V

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta and Bharatiya Janata Party MP and actor Kangana Ranaut found themselves in a social media confrontation after discussing the recent controversy of comedian Kunal Kamra, comparing compared to Kangana’s past.

The debate began when Mehta gave her support on social media for Kamra, which was brutally in Mumbai Studios and was later demolished by the Birhanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) after joking about Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. While Mehta condemned the attack on freedom of Kamra’s speech, a social media user questioned why Kangana’s Mumbai house was partially demolished in 2020, why did he not show similar support.

Responding to Query, Mehta asked whether Kangana’s house was brutally vandalized as an attack on her freedom of expression or if the demolition was linked to the alleged violation of the floor space index (FSI) rules.

Was there a barbarity in his house? Did the goons enter their premises? Did he do this to challenge the freedom of his expression or to violate the alleged FSI? Please enlighten me. Perhaps I don’t know the facts, “he wrote on X (East Twitter).

Kangana, in turn, reacted strongly to Mehta’s comments, recalling the events around the demolition of her house.

She claimed that she was under misconduct and threats, before her house was torn overnight. Sharing Mehta’s tweet again, Kangana accused him of being “bitter and stupid” and dismissed his response as an ignorant. “They called me the name …, threatened me, served a notice to my watchman late at night, and before opening the courts, the bulldozer demolished the entire house. The High Court called the demolition completely illegal. They used to laugh at it and raise a toast for my pain and public insults,” she wrote.

Criticizing Mehta, he said, “It seems that your insecurity and average status has not only made you bitter and stupid, but has blinded you. It is some third-III-class class chain or tyrannical films that you make. Do not try to sell my dumb and agenda in matters related to my ordinances.

Mehta kept her answer brief, a simple “recover soon while responding to Kangana’s attack.

The dispute is till September 2020, when BMC demolished parts of Ranaut’s office-cum-residential bungalow in Bandra citing unauthorized construction. Meanwhile, on 25 March, Kangana Ranaut slammed standup artist Kunal Kamra for her allegedly derogatory remarks against Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde. The demolition of his office is being asked by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) in 2020 and the brutality of the studio where Kamra performed, ‘Emergency’ actor said the actor said that what happened to him was “illegal”, but what has happened now is “legal action”. Talking to the media, Kanagana said, “The way he (Kamra) was making fun of me, what happened to me, illegally … I will not add these two incidents. What happened to me was illegal, but is being legally being done here.”

“You can happen to anyone, but are insulting and maligning someone. A person for whom his/his honor is everything, and you insult and disregard him in the name of comedy. Shinde ji had driven the rickshaw, and now he has come on his own,” he said. He accused Kamra of defaming and disregarding people in the name of comedy for “2 -minute fame” and questioned Kamra’s “credentials”. He also raised ‘concerns’ about where the society is. He said, “Who are these people, and what are their credibility? That they cannot do anything in their lives … If they can write, they should do so in literature. Abuse people and our culture in the name of comedy. We should think where the society is going when someone does this for fame for only 2 minutes,” he said.