Kangana Ranaut has played Indira Gandhi in her forthcoming movie Emergency. But on Bigg Boss 18, she compared herself to Gandhi’s nemesis Jai Prakash Narayan.
The actor entered the Bigg Boss house on 31 December to promote the film, which is now slated to release 17 January. Emergency’s initial release date of 6 September 2024 was postponed due to issues with the Censor board.
The movie, starring Anupam Kher as JP and Shreyas Talpade as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, is based on the 1975 Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (played by Ranaut in the film).
Dressed in a golden coord set, Kangana Ranaut dived into the historical backdrop of the Emergency. She explained how the event led to a suspension of fundamental constitutional rights, such as the right to life, as blank-faced inmates nodded in response.
“A dictatorship like this once ruled our country, orchestrated by a very popular politician,” she said, adding that “even when these rules were enforced, some courageous individuals chose to resist them—like JP Narayan ji, who protested against them. He was a rule-breaker, just like me. Now that I’m here in the Bigg Boss house, I’ll break some rules too.”
True to her words, Ranaut disrupted two long standing traditions of the show. First, she announced the end of the daily Bigg Boss anthem played each morning. Instead, she introduced a jukebox with four song options, allowing housemates to pick what they’d like to hear.
Second, she defied the cardinal rule of not sharing outside information with housemates. Ranaut revealed that the two most trending women from the house were Chum Darang and Eisha Singh, while Karan Veer Mehra and Vivian Dsena hold the top spots among male contestants.
Bigg Boss 18 airs Monday to Sunday at 10 pm (9:30 pm on weekends) on ColorsTV. It is also available for streaming on JioCinema.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)