Kangana Ranaut objects to Alia Bhatt’s ‘kanyadaan’ ad: ‘Stop manipulating naive consumers’

Actor Kangana Ranaut has reacted to a new advertisement featuring actor Alia Bhatt. In the commercial, for a bridal wear brand, Alia played a bride who doesn’t agree with the practice of ‘kanyadaan (giving one’s daughter away)’ at some Indian weddings.

Sharing her thoughts on the ad, Kangana tagged Alia and the brand in her Instagram post and wrote that she believes the ad is trying to ‘manipulate’ customers and using religion and minority politics to their advantage. “Humble request to all brands ….. don’t use religion, minority, majority politics to sell things …. Stop manipulating naive consumer with shrewd divisive concepts and advertising… #mohey @aliaabhatt @moheyfashion @stylebyami.” she captioned her post.

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The actual note read, “We often see a Martyr’s father on television when they loose a son on the border they roar don’t worry I have one more son, uska bhi daan main iss dharti Maa ko dunga… Kanyadaan ho ya putradaan (I will give him away for the protection of Mother Earth. Be it giving away one’s daughter or son)… The way a society looks at the concept of (lack of equivalent word in English or Urdu using) renunciation shows it’s core value system… When they start to look down upon the very idea of daan (charity/donation)… Then you know it is time for reestablishment of Ram Rajya…. The king who renounced everything he ever loved only to live the life of a Tapasvi (monk) Please stop mocking Hindus and their rituals…. Dharti (Earth) and woman both are mothers in scriptures they are worshipped as goddesses of fertility…. Nothing wrong in seeing them as precious and very source of existence (shakti).”

In the ad, Alia sits at a wedding mandap with her husband-to-be, and tells the viewers how her family loves her a lot but keeps reminding her that she must leave one day for her husband’s house. “Am I a thing to be donated? Why only kanyadaan,” she asks in an internal monologue. Many fans liked the modern take on the tradition but others objected to it on social media. The ad is directed by Abhishek Varman, who directed Alia in the films 2 States and Kalank.

Also read: Kangana Ranaut shares video on how she used to praise Alia Bhatt, Deepika, Taapsee: ‘But none showed any support to me’

This is not the first time that Kangana has spoken against Alia or her work. She has often taken potshots at her, criticising her acting skills and calling her a member of the ‘nepo-gang’. In an interview with Pinkvilla last year, Kangana said she told Alia over a phone call to ‘have a voice of her own’ and accused her of being Karan Johar’s ‘puppet’.

She found it ‘embarrassing’ to be compared to Alia and called her performance in Gully Boy mediocre.