While the Bollywood brigades brawl has been getting dirtier with every passing day, some of the tension has even spilt over into the politics. Recently, we saw veteran actress Jaya Bachchan slamming Ravi Kishan and Kangana Ranaut for their remarks on Bollywood. And now actress and Congress candidate Urmila Matondkar has also taken a dig at Kangana for her comments. 

It all began with Bollywood’s drug connection surfacing during the Sushant Singh Rajput death case investigation. While it were these charges that even reached to the recent parliament discussion, leading to Jaya Bachchan lashing out at those defaming Bollywood, but things have only taken an ugly turn from there. Backing Jayaji in for her statement, actress Urmila Matondkar also shared her views in some television interviews. While talking to NDTV, Urmila shared, “I personally think, the voice that Kangana is raising is very selective. On one side you are saying I am ostracised on the other side you are saying I am self-made and don’t need anybody. On one side you are saying I brought in feminism, on the other side you are playing the woman card.” 

In another interview to India Today, Urmila shared her strong views on Kangana and this drug angle, she said, “To claim that the entire film industry is all about drug mafia is not just an overstatement, but I don’t even know what to call it. Everything that you have got today, the name, the fame and the money, is all thanks to Mumbai and the film industry. Why is it that you have not spoken about these things in the last so many years and are speaking about all this only in the last few months? The timing seems funny. Everything seems to be going a bit berserk.”

Reacting to all these comments from Urmila, Kangana didn’t stay back from giving it back to the actress turned politician. In an interview to Times Now, Kangana said, “I saw one very derogatory interview given by Urmila Matondkar. The way she was talking about me, pulling faces, making a mockery about my struggles, attacking me on the fact that I am trying to appease BJP for a ticket. One doesn’t have to be a genius to figure for me it is not very difficult to get a ticket. Urmila is a soft porn star. She is not known for her acting for sure, what is she known for? For doing soft porns right. If she could get a ticket, why wouldn’t I get a ticket?”

Later on, Kangana continued with her slam-jam on Twitter. Check out what she tweeted: 

Liberal brigade once virtually lynched a renowned writer in to silence for saying people like Sunny Leone should not be our role models, Sunny is accepted by the industry and entire India as an artist, suddenly fake feminists equating being a porn star to something derogatory ????

— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) September 17, 2020

With Kangana’s this statement a lot of Bollywood personalities have jumped into to support Urmila and slam Kangana. Some names include director Anubhav Sinha, Swara Bhasker, etc. 

Urmila even shared her views on Nepotism and said, “I come from an extremely middle-class Marathi background. My family doesn’t have anything to do with films; even I have suffered a lot of nepotism. I chose never to speak about it and concentrate on my work and let my work speak for itself. I will tell you about some of my remarkable performances, but I was never even nominated for them. That is a part and parcel of the big journey you take, but in that, you have to decide if you want to be remembered for good things or bad things.”

She even spoke about how media in the 90s has been an important reason for nepotism to grow, she shared, “In the 90s the press was like a mafia because there was no social media, stars were made or literally shattered by the media. I also suffered a lot because I refused to budge or give in to these people, but I also met some extremely nice people.” Urmila also added that in those days if you refused to do what the media said, there were severe consequences to face. She even revealed that when she entered the industry a lot of criticism came her way. 

Urmila who has been a very popular actress in the 80s and 90s has delivered some amazing performances on the big screen. Some of her iconic roles were in the film Rangeela, Om Jai Jagdish, Lajja, Satya, Pyar Tune Kya Kiya, etc. Her last outing on the big screen was with a special appearance in the movie Blackmail. Now, the actress has moved to politics since 2019 and is an active member of the National Congress Party. 

Written by Nawaz Kochra (Entertainment Journalist, Mumbai)