Grow a spine, your existence is all about being Karan Johar's puppet, Kangana Ranaut tells Alia Bhatt

Kangana Ranaut has been at loggerheads with filmmaker Krish, her Manikarnika: The Queen Of Jhansi co-director, for a while, but now the actress has hit out at rival Alia Bhatt for not coming out to watch her film.

Speaking to reporters while promoting her forthcoming release Gully Boy (2019) on Thursday, Bhatt was asked about Ranaut lashing out at the industry for not supporting her film.

"I hope she doesn’t dislike me and I don’t think she dislikes me," Bhatt responded. "I don’t think I have done anything intentionally to upset her. If I have, I will apologize to her at a personal level.”

Ranaut, however, did not take too kindly to this diplomatic response and launched a scathing attack on Bhatt.

"I reached out to Alia Bhatt and asked her what makes her think Manikarnika is my personal controversy," Ranaut told the Pinkvilla.com website. "It is a film the whole nation is talking about and wondering why 'Bollywood' is keeping quiet about such relevant work."

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Ranaut had invited a host of film industry stalwarts for a special screening of Manikarnika, but she was left disappointed that hardly any of the big names turned up. Even Amitabh Bachchan, the narrator in Manikarnika, failed to show up. 

Slamming Bhatt, Ranaut did not hesitate to label the young star a puppet of her old bete noir, filmmaker Karan Johar.

"I asked her [Bhatt] if I can be courteous and gracious to acknowledge her requests for encouraging relevant work that she does, why is she so scared to see my film. I suggested that she grow some spine and support an important film about woman empowerment and nationalism. If she doesn’t have a voice of her own and her existence is all about being Karan Johar’s puppet, then I don’t consider her successful," Ranaut fumed.

Ranaut was among those invited by Bhatt to watch her acclaimed film Raazi (2018) last year. Ranaut had praised the film and hailed Bhatt as the 'queen of Bollywood'. She had watched Raazi despite it having been produced by Johar, with whom she had had an almighty spat on the subject of nepotism in the film industry.

Inviting Bhatt was not about returning the favour, Ranaut said, but she, too, wanted her colleagues to watch a film that pays tribute to a national icon like rani Laxmibai.