‘Tanu Weds Manu’ actor Kangana Ranaut recently opened up about an alleged ‘Bollywood drug nexus’ and said that she was also drugged by a ‘character actor’ during her struggling days in Bollywood.
In an interview with Republic World, the bold actor said that at 16, she left her home in Manali and won a competition in Chandigarh post which the agency sent her to Mumbai. Days after living in a hostel, she moved to live with an aunty at a flat in the city. That’s when this ‘character actor’ befriended her, promising to find work for her.
Within days, he allegedly lured the aunty with his filmy connections and became her ‘self-appointed mentor’. The three then started living together. But soon, he reportedly fought with the aunty and asked her to leave.
“But he kept my belongings in the home and locked me. And whatever I would do, his staff would straightaway give updates to him. It felt almost like a house arrest,” said Kangana.
She went on to say:
“He took me to parties and once I felt an intoxication that led to intimacy between us. Then I realised that it was not done willingly, but my drink had been spiked. And after that incident, within a week, he became my self-appointed husband. And if I tell him, ‘you are not my boyfriend’, he’d charge at me with slippers to hit me.”
The ‘Manikarnika’ actor then recalled how he would reportedly take her to meetings and leave her with elderly men. “He started taking me to meetings where people from Dubai, those associated with gold mines, coal mines, from big and small cities, would attend, and he’d make me sit in the middle with the elderly men, and he himself would leave the meeting. They would take my number and I started fearing that they would supply me to Dubai.”
She further divulged that this ‘mystery man’ became upset when she got her break with the film ‘Gangster’ in 2007. He then allegedly started sedating her. “When I got the break, he was agitated. He started telling me after drinking that he never expected that I will get a break so soon.”
“After that, he started sedating me with injections so that I am not able to go to shoots, I told my director Anurag Basu about it. If he would hit me and I’d have bruises, Anurag would make me stay at his office for many nights, to protect me.”
When she shifted to a new flat, he also followed her there. He reportedly made a fake key and would enter anytime he wished. Kangana also claimed that he would tell her that “you will become Parveen Babi. Do you know what had happened to her? She was drugged to trigger her mental illness and that’s what will be done to you as well.”
She continued that he provoked her till she was suicidal. “When I started going to the sets, Mahesh Bhatt, who came only once said, ‘black cat in a dark room’ continuously. I was just 18 years old then. Then he would ask me what Mahesh Bhatt told me. Then he would drug me and tell me to repeat ‘black cat in a dark room’ for hours.”
“All he wanted to do was create that hallucinatory feeling when one feels they are in a different world. I would have committed suicide, but maybe the blessings of my gurus and my inclination towards yoga helped me.”
“When he felt I was going out of his grasp, he started getting more violent. During that phase, one night, I jumped from the window in a drugged condition and got an FIR registered against him.”
Spilling secrets of the ‘Bollywood drug mafia’, Kangana alleged, “Many young actors, my age, they individually snort drugs and do shows. Second, blind items are also being written about these actors. Dealers are the same.”
“Everything is handled in a systematic manner. Their wives also host these parties. It is a different environment altogether. You will find people who only do drugs and indulge in debauchery in such parties.”
She also claimed, “Many governments have helped this Bollywood-drug mafia grow. Same Bollywood-drug mafia involved, they know each other, same dealers and peddlers are involved. Then there is another racket, blind items, where actors have admitted that they consume drugs.”
“These people promote nepotism, many of them do drugs from childhood and then become actors or directors. Many of these actors, I dated one of them, they go to a place, start with a drink & then go on with drugs. It all starts with a drink, then a roll, and then a pill, then they snort, it’s a secret sign.”
She further added, “These actors, their wives move to houses & do drugs, debauchery is unimaginable. I’ve seen how vulgar it becomes and things get out of control at these drug parties. Some of the realities are shown in a recent film, but the truth is whitewashed. My question is how can such people be idolized?”
Kangana’s claims paint a very grim and disheartening picture of the Indian film industry. Hope things will change in the industry with time.