Reserve rights to pursue legal action against malicious statements: Filmfare withdraws Kangana Ranaut's nomination for Thalaivii after actress decides to sue them for being 'unethical' & 'corrupt'

By Tanmayi Savadi

on August 22, 2022 09:14:42 AM

On August 18, the nominations for the 67th Filmfare Awards 2022 were announced. Renowned talents like Dhanush, Vidya Balan, Vicky Kaushal, Taapsee Pannu, Sidharth Malhotra, Kangana Ranaut and many others were nominated for their films. While celebrities celebrated their nominations, Kangana wasn't completely happy despite being recognised for her work in Thalaivii.

The actress, on Sunday, went on to accuse Filmfare of being 'unethical' and 'corrupt'. Sharing multiple stories on Instagram, Kangana decided to take legal action against the publication. In her first story, she wrote, "I've banned unethical, corrupt and totally unfair practices like @filmfare since 2014, but since I have been getting many calls from them for attending their award function this year as they want to give me award for Thalaivii... I am shocked to know that they are still nominating me. It is beneath my dignity, work ethics and value system to encourage such corrupt practices in anyway, that is why I have decided to sue @filmfare ... thanks."

Later, she shared, "Back in 2013, Filmfare clearly told me that if I don’t attend their award show or dance on the stage, I won’t get awards and I made clear to them back in 2013 that I will never attend anything which is morally deprived and unethical. So when they know I won’t attend and as a policy they won’t give awards to those who don’t attend so why nominations?? Making desperate blackmailing calls to attend awards after pitted against mediocre work… what is the purpose of all this."

Kangana added, "My work is worship for me. I gained 20 kgs for Thalaivii, got high cholestrol and borderline thyroid as well, I learnt Bharatnatyam and Tamil for two years, my craft is not for creativity poor, morally corrupt unethical bunch of mafia clowns to exploit.. Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide he too blamed these corrupt award shows and magazine giants who operate on movie mafia guidelines.. enough is enough I have decided not to let them exploit my work."

After the series of allegations, Filmfare responded to Kangana's claims in a statement. A part of the statement read, "For over six decades, Filmfare Awards, and Filmfare, at large, has been a platform that celebrates and honours talent in the Film industry impartially and with utmost transparency. It is our strong ethic that has helped us in gaining the trust of our audiences and the film industry. As is customary during the awards, Filmfare’s Executive Editor informed Ms. Ranaut about her nomination in the Best Actor in a Leading Role, Female category and asked for her address to send across the invitation."

The publication further mentioned, "The exact message was as follows ‘Hello Kangana, heartiest congratulations on your nomination for the Filmfare Awards. It’ll be a pleasure to have you there, do confirm your presence at the awards ceremony on August 30 at Jio World Convention Centre at BKC, Mumbai. It’ll help us plot your seats. P.S. Please send us your residential address so that we can send you the invite. Regards.’ At no time was there any insinuation of an award being given to her or any request for performance at the event made."

The statement read, "This is a patently false accusation being made by Ms Ranaut. Our invitation to her was our effort in bringing together everyone in a collective celebration of what brings this nation together, i.e. Indian Cinema. Filmfare Awards are a celebration of cinematic excellence and are awarded irrespective of the fact that a nominee attends or performs at the function. Further, Ms. Ranaut a 5-time Filmfare Awardee, was given the award twice in absentia (2014 & 2015). Despite knowing that she would neither attend nor perform. Given the irresponsible remarks made by Ms. Ranaut about Filmfare Awards, we are withdrawing her Best Actress nomination for the movie Thalaivii."

Filmfare concluded the statement with, "We reserve all rights to pursue any legal action against her malicious and defamatory statements tarnishing our reputation and goodwill."

Hours after Filmfare withdrew her nomination from the Best Actress category, Kangana reacted on her Instagram stories, "@filmfare has finally withdrew my bets actress nominations, thanks to everyone who supported me in this fight against corrupt system but this doesn't stop me from taking legal action against them…my endeavour is to put an end to these unethical practices and stop such malicious award shows…see you in court @filmfare."