As Taapsee Pannu promotes her new film ‘Gandhari’, she has once again found herself pulled into her long-running public feud with Kangana Ranaut, a rivalry that seems to resurface every time Taapsee has a movie coming out. The latest round started when Taapsee, who usually stays quiet until a release is near, spoke about her relationship with Kangana. She said her opinion of the ‘Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata’ actress came from her “upbringing,” just as Kangana’s behaviour reflected hers. In response, Kangana took an indirect dig at her on Instagram stories, again calling her (without naming Taapsee directly) a “B-grade actress”, a term first used by her sister, Rangoli Chandel.
Swastika Mukherjee says it’s “not a catfight”
In a chat with NDTV, Taapsee’s ‘Gandhari’ co-star Swastika Mukherjee weighed in candidly on the ongoing controversy. When asked about the recent clash between Kangana and Taapsee, Swastika confessed she was completely unaware of it. She also pushed back against labelling it a “catfight,” saying, “I used to really like Kangana a lot as an actor. I still feel she gives us great fashion goals – and that’s about it. I don’t think these are catfights, because I believe both people have to engage in it. Nowadays, you mostly see one person having an opinion, or as happens in our film industry too, you’ll find one or two such characters who bash everyone. They just don’t have anything good to say – whether seniors, colleagues, contemporaries, or juniors.”She added, “For anything and everything, it’s just a lot of negativity. I’m very happy working in the film. And I don’t know, I’ve seen people say the most common thing is, ‘Oh, she’s very impolite.’ I’ve not seen that about Taapsee at all. She’s very grounded. She’s normal.”
Swastika Mukherjee says actors don’t need to be smiling always
The actress offered a practical take, pointing out that it’s unfair to expect an actor to be smiling all the time on set. She said, “You can’t expect an actor to be sweet constantly on set. She might be focusing on her lines, she might be focusing on her role. She might not wave at you when you’re passing by. That doesn’t make anyone rude. You don’t need to be all smiles all the time. I think she’s just normal. But I really didn’t know that Taapsee and Kangana had a longstanding issue. I think it will happen every time she has a release, no?”.
Taapsee Pannu and Kangana Ranaut’s feud dates back to 2019
The rivalry between Taapsee and Kangana is nothing new, dating all the way back to 2019. It began when Taapsee suggested Kangana needed a “double filter” for her comments during the promotions of ‘Manmarziyaan’, followed by Rangoli Chandel branding Taapsee a “sasti copy” that same year, with the sniping continuing ever since, whether direct or veiled. The feud intensified in 2020 amid the nepotism debate and the fallout from Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, when Kangana openly targeted actresses including Taapsee and Swara Bhaskar, calling them “B-grade actresses” and “needy outsiders” for failing to challenge Bollywood insiders. More recently, fresh remarks exchanged between the two, via interviews and Instagram stories, have brought the long-standing rivalry back into the spotlight.
Taapsee Pannu on the work front
On the work front, Taapsee Pannu’s next film is the action-thriller ‘Gandhari’, coming to Netflix on September 3. It is directed by Devashish Makhija, and produced by Kanika Dhillon.
