Mumbai: What began as a debate over Kriti Sanon’s outfit in a jewellery advertisement took an uncomfortable communal turn during Kangana Ranaut’s recent interview with journalist Sudhir Chaudhary.
Speaking on Decode with Sudhir Chaudhary, Kangana revisited the controversy surrounding Kriti’s Raksha Bandhan campaign. During the conversation, Sudhir posed a rather bizarre question, asking, “Agar yahi Kriti Eid par ek post daalengi, toh kya aise kapde pehen kar daal sakti hain?”
As if the comparison between a Raksha Bandhan advertisement and an Eid post was not strange enough, Kangana responded with an unrelated remark about the Muslim community.
“Mujhe lagta hai wahan toh phir bhi aap apne cousins aur behno se shaadi karte hain,” she said, before comparing relationships and boundaries across Hindu and Muslim communities.
The exchange had little to do with the original controversy. Criticism of an actor’s outfit or a brand’s representation of a festival can be debated on its own terms. However, introducing Eid and making a sweeping statement about an entire community only shifted the conversation towards communal stereotypes.
The controversy began after Kriti appeared in a Raksha Bandhan campaign for a jewellery brand. Kangana had earlier called the advertisement “intentionally creepy” and questioned why anyone would tie a rakhi while dressed in what she described as a bikini.
Kriti later defended herself, saying that culture and traditions reside in a person’s heart, not their neckline. She also questioned why women continue to be judged and told what to wear. The jewellery brand subsequently withdrew the campaign after the backlash.
At a time when the original debate was already centred on policing a woman’s clothes, the televised exchange unnecessarily brought religion into the picture. A question that did not need to be asked received an answer that only risked deepening communal differences
| 
