Meet Kangana Ranaut: The Queen Who Fought Nepotism

Brut India

She ruled the red carpet at Festival de Cannes with elegance.   But this fearless Bollywood actress comes from a humble background and had to overcome patriarchy and nepotism to get to where she is today.

Transcript

00:00I didn't see myself as a liability.

00:10I didn't see myself as someone whose purpose of life is just to find a good enough husband

00:19who can take care of her.

00:34I wasn't a child that an Indian parent would like to have.

00:39I was quite rebellious.

00:48I liked the fact that my father had a lot of expectations from my brother and I probably

00:56wanted to be that person who he could be proud of and who could be her own hero.

01:15My parents gave me an easy option that if you are going to go your way, there's the

01:21highway and you can probably expect no funds and no support.

01:45When I started out, they dismissed me like a nobody.

02:11When I came to Mumbai, they saw me as this village woman who had a weird accent and

02:16weird appearance, I guess, but I didn't see myself like that.

03:16I always put my work as a priority because I don't give into all that philosophical talks

03:24that money is nothing and it's the real thing in life, but it's because of money that today

03:30I could give a very comfortable life for my parents.

03:33I could afford a very secure future for myself and I could actually support causes that I

03:39really believe in.

03:40It's all because of my work and things that I could earn in my life and things that make

03:47me happy.

04:10The

04:38right to wear what you want, whether it's a bikini or a burqa, either way, you should

04:43be allowed to wear what you want is another something so shameful that any society who

04:50has to state the obvious is in a bad shape, I must say.

04:55The right to go out at your own convenience and at the time that you want to and for that

05:04we need law enforcement and the infrastructure and the involvement of authorities.

05:12We don't have that, clearly don't have that, so women can't participate as much as they

05:18would like to.

05:19Growing up, yes, I did feel that there is something, something doesn't fit in, right?

05:24Because if you're born into a situation, you wouldn't know what is it like not to be there.

05:31You wouldn't know that there is something unfair when you haven't seen what fair is

05:36like, right?

05:38You don't know that it's okay for your brother to have a different upbringing and for you

05:43to have a different upbringing because that's the upbringing of every woman around you,

05:48so that is being normalized.

05:55We are still struggling with very primitive, very, very primitive things that we are fighting

06:02for as women and as equal rights that, you know, equal pay for equal work is something

06:09which is so shameful even to be fighting for.

06:26I feel that India is now free because before this, we were slaves of the British, the Mughals

06:31and the Italian government.

06:45When so many children are dying on our borders, how do you sleep?

06:48How dare you say in this democracy that don't ask me about politics?

06:52I think Mayank Shekhar was giving an interview to Ranbir Kapoor when he said,

06:55there is electricity and water in my house.

06:56How did he not answer him back?

06:57How did he not make him sit and ask him to get lost from there?

07:00How do you all tolerate this in a democracy like that?

07:03And then you make these people your role models?

07:05How does that work?

07:06So this is not going to work.

07:08This is the beginning of a new India and I think our stand in the world is very clear

07:23that we are not going to take things lying down and also we are going to reciprocate

07:28the way, you know, we are dealt with.

07:31So definitely it's a good strategy to have.

08:08Today I am who I am because my understanding of myself never changed.

08:17So as women, we don't have to hope that we get our due.

08:21We need to get up and get it ourselves.

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