The IIFA awards took place this week and they, umm, kinda had a controversy of sorts due to the ‘N’ word. Yep, that’s right – nepotism – the debate is not ending anytime soon!
Hosts Saif Ali Khan & Karan Johar broke into a nepotism joke on stage when Varun Dhawan went to collect his award for Best Actor in a comic role. Of course, Kangana Ranaut was dragged into it. Saif and KJo faced a lot of flak later for making such jokes and pulling down a successful woman who entered the industry on her own accord.
In an interview to NDTV, Karan took responsibility for his comments and admitted to being wrong. He said:
This is something I need to say to clarify, of course I don’t belive that nepotism rocks. I believe that only talent rocks. If anything that rocks, it’s your talent, hard work and conviction. It’s the energy you bring to your job. What we said was meant to be a joke, I think it was misplaced, misunderstood and I think we went wrong.The idea of that joke was entirely mine, so I take onus of the idea of what we said. And I think we went a bit too far with the Kangana Ranaut comment.
He also said that he does not wish to pursue the topic any further:
I want to once and for all say and close this chapter. After this and subsequently, I will not speak about nepotism and Kangana because it would be disrespectful for her and it would be ungraceful at my end, which I’ve already been. Nepotism is easy access, nobody can deny that, but what you do with that access is what moulds you into a professional.
Your thoughts?