Kangana Ranaut has lost the plot. At least Rajeev Masand thinks so. Former film critic, and now the COO of Dharma Collab Artists Agency (DCAA), recently reiterated that while he loves Kangana as an actor, he feels the person has overshadowed the actor now, particularly after her entry into politics. Kangana became an MP from Bhartiya Janata Party a couple of years ago after winning the Lok Sabha election in her constituency of Mandi, Himachal Pradesh.

Rajeev Masand on Kangana Ranaut

“I miss Kangana the actor. She’s just a joke now,” Rajeev said recently. He also dismissed Kangana’s go-to narrative that she was deprived of opportunities by the top stakeholders of Bollywood. “I don’t know. That’s just a great story to keep repeating again and again. But I don’t think so. Let’s just face it — Bollywood respects success. A lot of people have had it hard in the beginning, but once you’re successful…,” he argued.

Hailing her performance in Vikas Bahl’s 2014 seminal coming-of-age film Queen as “amazing”, Rajeev admitted he’s “excited” to watch her reunite with Bahl for the upcoming sequel, Queen 2. “Every time she made a film because it was a great film to make, she was great in it. But since then, it’s a little been about the Kangana show,” Rajeev said on the Cyrus Says podcast.

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Calling her a “fine actor”, Rajeev confessed he misses watching the Kangana who could just transform into the character. “You could see no trace of the actor. She was the character,” he said. However, he claimed he hasn’t lost hope and feels Kangana can still redeem her lost glory in the future. “Who knows,” he said, agreeing that she should first quit her political career to snap out of her current state. He even claimed Kangana is at par with Alia Bhatt, hailing the two as the best actresses of Hindi cinema.

Rajeev also pointed out that it’s celebrities like Kangana who have kept the tabloids alive with their unfiltered opinions. He called Kangana, reality TV star Rakhi Sawant, and Sunita Ahuja, actor Govinda’s wife, as the ones who are “vociferous, outspoken, and fun”, and are “keeping the old flag flying”.

Kangana Ranaut and Rajeev Masand’s feud

Kangana and Rajeev’s feud started back when she called out then-film critic for not inviting her to his coveted year-end actresses roundtable. She alleged that Rajeev operated out of bias, given his proximity to filmmaker Karan Johar, who she claimed had his share of favourites, who were all star kids, as opposed to outsiders like her. Back in 2018, Kangana famously dubbed Karan as the “flagbearer of nepotism”.

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Five years ago, when Rajeev joined DCAA, the talent management wing of Karan’s banner Dharma Productions, Kangana argued that all her past claims got justified by that move. She even blamed Rajeev for writing blind items against actors like her and late Sushant Singh Rajput, who died of suicide in 2020. She alleged the blind items caused “mental agony” to outsiders like them.