Kangana Ranaut, the National Award-winning Hindi actor, landed in trouble after her Twitter account was deactivated briefly on Tuesday after she posted some “hateful” tweets regarding banning Amazon Prime Video’s web series Tandav, which is facing flak for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments.
The social media giant took the action after Ranaut tweeted “it was time to take their heads off”, referring to the makers of the series, against whom two complaints were filed for allegedly insulting and humiliating the Hindu deity, Lord Shiva, in one of its scenes. An FIR was filed on Monday in Lucknow against Amazon Prime Video’s India head of original content Aparna Purohit, series director Ali Abbas Zafar, producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra, writer Gaurav Solanki, and others. While the makers announced on Tuesday that changes in line with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry’s guidelines will be made, another complaint was filed on Wednesday at Mumbai’s Ghatkopar Police Station.
Launching an attack on the makers of Tandav, Ranaut had tweeted: “Because even Lord Krishna forgave 99 mistakes of Sheshupala….pehle Shanti phir Kranti….time to take their heads off…Jai Shri Krishan…”
Soon after she posted this, the tweet was deleted and her account switched to “read-only” mode for a few hours before being re-activated.
Targeting series director Zafar, the Queen actor on Monday wrote, “Will he be spared to seek forgiveness? They [Islamic countries] straightaway slit throats, the “jihadi” countries put out fatwas, “libru” media carries out virtual lynching. You [Zafar] will not only be killed but your killing will be justified. Tell me Ali Abbas Zafar, would you dare make fun of Allah?”
माफ़ी माँगने केलिये बचेगा कहाँ? ये तो सीधा गला काट देते हैं, जिहादी देश फ़तवा निकाल देते हैं लिब्रु मीडिया वर्चूअल लिंचिंग कर देती है, तुम्हें ना सिर्फ़ जान से मार दिया जाएगा बल्कि उस मौत को भी जस्टिफ़ाई किया जाएगा, बोलो @aliabbaszafar है हिम्मत अल्लाह का मज़ाक़ उड़ाने की ? https://t.co/NYASyuVS2i
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) January 18, 2021
Ranaut’s tweet was in violation of Twitter’s safety policy regarding hateful conduct. As per the policy, an individual “may not engage in the targeted harassment of someone, or incite other people to do so. This includes wishing or hoping that someone experiences physical harm”.
Twitter’s notice regarding Ranaut’s tweet that violated its policy read, “If a Tweet was found to be in violation of our rules, and has yet to be deleted by the person who Tweeted it, we will hide it behind a notice. The account will remain locked until the Tweet is removed.”
On Wednesday, #SuspendKanganaRanaut started doing the rounds on Twitter. The actor responded by calling them anti-nationals.
Anti nationals are trending #SuspendKanganaRanaut …. please do, when they suspended Rangs I came and made their lives even more miserable,now if they suspend me will exit virtual world and in real world will show you real Kangana Ranaut- the mother of all fathers #babbarsherni pic.twitter.com/Msl2PosqDK
— Kangana Ranaut (@KanganaTeam) January 20, 2021
The actor made headlines on Sunday after her name surfaced in a series of text messages exchanged between Republic TV editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami and former CEO of BARC India Partho Dasgupta. These text messages were accessed by the Mumbai Police as part of the ongoing investigation into the fake TRP scam case. In these alleged chats, some of them dating to 2019, Goswami was seen talking about Ranaut and how she helps in generating TRPs.
Apart from sharing information of national interests, Goswami and Dasgupta discussed the controversy surrounding Ranaut’s alleged relationship with actor Hrithik Roshan. The 500-plus pages of the alleged chats also revealed that Goswami might have had prior information about India’s 2019 Balakot air strikes against a terrorist camp in Pakistan.
