Manu Joseph: Why Kangana Ranaut could be seen as India’s Trump

A few weeks ago, Ranaut got a legal notice for stating that India’s independence was not real, that it actually got its freedom in 2014 when Narendra Modi took over as Prime Minister. She has also said that the Hindi film industry is run by a small cartel of privileged children. 

This is not the sort of thing an actor can say and survive in the industry. She has probably not survived as such, at least the way she could have if she did not speak her mind. But she has become a far bigger public figure by doing just that.

She is India’s Donald Trump, a person who says things others would not. For this reason, her political future is underestimated the way Trump’s was. 

Also read: Kangana Ranaut is ‘an asset for Congress’: Netizens say ‘Thanks for defeating BJP in the Haryana Elections’

Her success in the recent general elections, when she was elected a Member of Parliament for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party may turn out to be just the start.

Every country has its own Trump. Every profession has its own Trump. And being Trump is about taking a gamble in a world stifled by decorum and saying things nobody else wants to say, which can be rude in a way many truths are. 

Trumps were around before the rise of Donald Trump, but they could not succeed as well as him before the age of social media because a cultural elite controlled public opinion. 

According to the political theology then, a person had to maintain some sort of decorum to win votes. Trump showed that was a wrong analysis.

Why should loose talk be politically valuable? Aren’t ordinary people decent folks? Trump said horrible things. For instance, he has called people ugly and fat. 

What analysts often don’t get is that Trump became popular not because of such statements, but in spite of them. There were other things he said and still says that make people feel he gets them, or is like them.

As his running mate J.D. Vance said in his memoir, there are many Americans who feel left behind by American progress and the face of that nation’s advancement is a swarm of suave highly-educated liberals of many colours, whom Trump roasts. 

It really didn’t matter that Trump was a very rich man, even if not as rich as he claimed. Between the rich and the posh, the average voter usually dislikes the posh more.

Ranaut is perhaps more relatable to Indians than Trump is to Americans. People are more likely to spend money on a Karan Johar film than a Kangana Ranaut movie, but if both stood for elections, they are more likely to vote for Ranaut.

Also read: Himachal Pradesh assembly adopts resolution condemning Kangana Ranaut’s remarks on farmers’ protests

Across the world, the rise of the political right has tracked the rise of individuals who have been blunt and politically incorrect. This is so in India too.

Typically, when a politician rises in stature and his base becomes broad, he becomes careful and his articulation becomes part of a practical decorum. That is why decorum exists. Not because the voting masses are inherently decent, but because public figures have to appease all constituencies. 

But some politicians find the freedom to say just about anything they want and thrive because of that. By speaking their minds, they primarily offer entertainment. And they often give us insights into the working of the world in a way that only bluntness can.

A few years ago, I interviewed Ranaut on stage for the Times Literature Festival. At the time, she was at the peak of her fame as an actor and enjoyed immense goodwill from all sides, as she was viewed as a person who came from nowhere and made something of her life in an industry where opportunities are often preordained. Also, she was yet to fully reveal her mind.

“I don’t like anything about my job, to be honest," she told me about acting. “I remind myself the bills that I have to pay."

The only major controversy surrounding her then was her claim that she had a relationship with Hrithik Roshan, which he denied. But later her attitude to the film industry changed. She said some industry people were working against her.

Often, people acquire strong political views not out of deep conviction, but because those views are the opposite of the values people they despise hold dear. This seems to be the case of many people in the Hindi film industry who went ‘right-wing.’ 

But none of them were as blunt as Ranaut, who called out giants in her own industry. In 2020, at the height of the covid pandemic, when the actor Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide, she said it was not a mental health issue and blamed a Bollywood cartel for pushing him to the sidelines. 

Those who condemned Ranaut for denying the role of mental health in his suicide were also the sort of people who don’t accept that mental health, and not the government, should be held responsible for the suicides of farmers or Dalit activists.

Before the rise of Ranaut as a politician, the person who came closest to being India’s Trump was Subramanian Swamy, who once said Indians who are not Hindu should not be allowed to vote unless they declare that their ancestors were Hindus.

Also read: US Presidential Election 2024: ’Hand of God’ saved me, says Trump, calls Harris ‘very destructive to religion’

While the world appears to be filled with loud voices, in reality, it is a silent place where most people cannot say what they want. Even if the world appears to be angry now, most people do not have strong opinions. 

They just enjoy the strong opinions of others. Moderates are bores; extremists are fun. Perhaps Ranaut knows that. Politicians are also actors. So, in a way, Kangana Ranaut has never really switched careers.