Kangana Ranaut defends ‘take their heads off’ tweet about Tandav, says ‘insects, worms need pesticide’
Kangana Ranaut stirred up a storm with her now-deleted tweet about the Amazon Prime Video series Tandav. The show, starring Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub and others, is at the centre of a controversy for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of certain sections.
Replying to a tweet about how people have ‘stopped taking insults lying down’ and made the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting seek an explanation from the makers, Kangana wrote on Monday, “Because even Lord Krishna forgave 99 mistakes of Sheshupala…. pehle Shanti phir Kranti (Silence must be followed by revolution)…. time to take their heads off… Jai Shri Krishan…” However, she deleted it shortly after.
Several Twitter users criticised Kangana for what they perceived as instigation of violence towards the team of Tandav. However, some of her fans defended her. One such person shared a screenshot from Google which said that ‘take head off’ is an idiom which means ‘to scold or berate someone severely’.
Kangana retweeted the tweet and wrote, “Jo libru dar ke maare mummy ki god mein ro rahe hai, woh yeh padh lein. Maine tumhara sir kaatne ke liye nahi kaha, itna toh main bhi jaanti hoon ki insects ya worms ke liye pesticide chahiye hota hai (The liberals who are scared and crying to their mothers must read this. I did not ask for you to be beheaded. Even I know that insects and worms need pesticide).”
Meanwhile, on Monday evening, Tandav director Ali Abbas Zafar issued an apology on behalf of the cast and crew. “We have been closely monitoring viewer reactions to the web series Tandav and today during a discussion, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have informed us regarding a large number of grievances and petitions received on various facets of the web series with serious concerns and apprehensions regarding its content hurting the sentiments of the people,” a statement shared on his Twitter account read.
“The web series Tandav is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead. The cast and crew of Tandav take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments,” it added.