Kangana Ranaut Vs Alia Bhatt: Is The Rivalry One-Sided? Tracing Their Controversial History

Kangana Ranaut vs Alia Bhatt : The long-standing rivalry between the two leading actresses in the Hindi film industry is not new. On several occasions, the Queen actress has taken potshots at her contemporary be it for nepotism or on her marriage with Ranbir Kapoor . In response, while Alia Bhatt has mostly refrained from commenting, her family members and loyal fans have advocated for her.

The war of words has been going on for years. Most recently, the Emergency star did not back from taking a controversial dig at Alia Bhatt after the disastrous verdict of Jigra at the box office. After Jigra opened to poor numbers, Kangana Ranaut took to her Instagram Stories to share two cryptic posts sighting one speculative claiming that the Gully Boy actress destroyed ‘women-centric cinema.’ But, when and why did Kangana vs Alia first begin?

Kangana Ranaut 's veiled digs at Alia Bhatt started in 2019

Back in 2019, Kangana Ranaut criticised Alia Bhatt 's performance in Gully Boy, describing it as 'mediocre'. During that period, the entertainment site Bollywood Life conducted a poll to determine the best female actor performance of 2019. Kangana topped the poll with 37 per cent of the votes for her role in Manikarnika, while Alia came in second with 33 per cent.

When the publication reached out to Kangana for her thoughts on surpassing Alia, she expressed, “I am embarrassed... what is there to beat in her Gully Boy performance... same snappy muh phat (outspoken) girl... Bollywood’s idea of a fiery girl, woman empowerment and good acting, spare me this embarrassment, please. The media has taken filmy kids' love too far. Stop pampering mediocre work or else the bar will never be raised.”

Later that same year, the Tejas actress accused Alia Bhatt and other celebrities of shamelessly inviting her to their film premieres while neglecting to attend the screenings of her films. This came after Alia Bhatt and several other industry insiders skipped the screening of Kangana starrer Manikarnika.

Kangana Ranaut calls Ranbir Kapoor - Alia Bhatt 'farzi couple'

In 2023, Kangana Ranaut made a pointed comment about Alia Bhatt and Ranbir Kapoor 's marriage, referring to them as a 'farzi (fake) couple'. She also noted that they live on different floors in the same building and their marriage is not as rosy as they portray it. Her comment came at a time when Ranbir Kapoor flew to London to celebrate his mother Neetu Kapoor's birthday, while Alia Bhatt and their daughter Raha stayed back in India.

Kangana also wrote, "In another news a farzi (fake) husband wife jodi (couple) who live on separate floors and pretend to be a couple are spreading fake news about movie announcements which aren't being made also calling a brand owned by Myntra their own ... besides no one wrote about how wife and daughter was snubbed from a recent family trip, while so-called husband was texting me begging and pleading to meet him ....This farzi jodi needs to be exposed." While Kangana never mentioned the Brahmastra couple's name, netizens speculated it was them.

Ranbir Kapoor dragged in Kangana Ranaut - Alia Bhatt crossfire 

Kangana Ranaut 's jibes do not end at Alia Bhatt . The actress has time and again mentioned her husband Ranbir Kapoor in her 'exposes'. Once, in an Instagram story, the actress called the Animal actor a 'womaniser' and 'casanova'. She claimed that he had made several attempts to connect with her which she denied. In 2023, Krrish 3 actress then dragged Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt in another post. She indirectly hinted that Ranbir begged her to date him.

“Another superstar who is known to be a womaniser landed at my house and begged me to date him but kept meeting secretly to pursue me when I questioned this shady behaviour he said he was getting a trilogy to date a Papa ki pari who he didn't love, I was not ok with that and I said no to such a situation, he too started to communicate from various numbers and accounts till I blocked all and then I felt he hacked all my device,” she said.

When Alia Bhatt and her family responded to Kangana Ranaut  

Amid all these controversies, the Jigra actor herself has largely refrained from making a direct attack on Kangana, In fact, the actress sent flowers to Kangana on her Padmashri honour in 2020. In response of which, her sister Rangoli made distasteful remarks. 

On being asked about the social media attack by Kangana's sister Rangoli Chandel, Alia's father Mahesh Bhatt told IANS, " She (Kangana) is a 'bachchi', started her journey with us. Just because her relative (sister Rangoli) is attacking me, I won't comment. "Till I die, I will never ever say anything against our children, because it is against my upbringing, it is against my nature," he maintained."

Addressing the issue, Alia once said, "I respect Kangana's work a lot and I respect her opinion. If she feels a particular way she must have reason to feel that way. I would rather remember how much she had praised me after watching Raazi. And I'd just like to focus on my work. Maybe she will appreciate me again if I work hard enough."

Most recently, Kangana Ranaut shared an enigmatic message on X which seemed to point towards Alia, referring to ‘witches’ in what appeared to be an indirect jab. As usual, Alia chose not to respond to the controversy, but her mother, Soni Razdan, showed support for her daughter with a cryptic post that many interpreted as a response.

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