Kangana Ranaut slams celebs for Black Lives Matter tweet

Actor Kangana Ranaut has slammed her Bollywood contemporaries for failing to condemn local injustices, but not hesitating before commenting on the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States. Several actors such as Priyanka Chopra and Kareena Kapoor Khan have expressed their anguish on social media, about the killing of a black man by a white policeman, which has resulted in mass protests across the US.

In an interview to Pinkvilla, Kangana said, "The Sadhu lynching happened a couple of weeks ago; still no one said a word. It happened in Maharashtra where most of these celebrities reside…Bollywood anyway is a derived name from Hollywood. It is a shame they [Bollywood celebrities] continue to live in a bubble and never fail to jump on the bandwagon, which can give them two minutes of fame, but 'white people' must drive the bandwagon. Perhaps, it is because of their pre-independence colonial slavery genes."

Several social media users have made similar observations about Bollywood stars. Politician Omar Abdullah had written on Twitter, "So much respect for all the celebrities tweeting #BLACK_LIVES_MATTER. It takes courage to bring your cowardice to the fore when you tweet for American lives but can't tweet for Indian lives."

Kangana continued, "Even for environmental issues, you see them fight for a white teenage kid but so many incredible elderly women and even children. They are doing exceptionally well in India on environmental matters without any help or support. Some of them were honoured with the Padma Shri award. I was amazed to see their stories, but they never get the same acknowledgement from the industry. Perhaps, sadhus or tribal people aren't fancy enough for the Bollywood crowd or their followers."

Kangana had previously slammed her Bollywood colleagues for their perceived silence over recent protests which were organised against the Citizenship Amendment Act, calling a section of the industry 'sissies', 'cowards' and 'spineless'.