Ranbir Kapoor has phailoed all over his women co-stars in interviews. Internet is calling him out now
Ranbir Kapoor has been Bollywood’s bad boy for quite some time, a label that the actor might in fact, wear as a badge of honour. However, as he had been getting some recent flak for a pregnancy comment on his wife Alia Bhatt, Twitter is having a field day digging up Kapoor’s past instances of condescending behaviour towards his exes and female co-stars.
The comment on Alia: Just a few days ago, Ranbir and Alia were having an Instagram live session to promote their upcoming collaboration Brahmastra. When the latter added that they are not “phailaoed” (spread) everywhere with promotion, Ranbir added, pointing at his pregnant wife Alia, “Well I can say somebody has phailoed.” While Alia and director Ayan Mukherji both looked shocked, Ranbir jumoed to clarify that it was a 'joke'. Kapoor has been receiving online criticism since then for his humour being in poor taste. He recently apologised for the same at a promo-event for the film.
The origins of the current RK slander: In light of the pregnancy comment controversy, conversations are centering around how Ranbir Kapoor and other male celebs tend to throw insensitive jabs at their female peers. A Twitter thread by user @rexiespo has similarly curated all the times Ranbir has been disrespectful to ex and frequent collaborator Katrina Kaif.
The thread starts off with a radio interview that the two gave to promote Jagga Jasoos, in which an obvious aggressive tension was present between the two actors. Ranbir and Katrina had famously broken up during the shooting of Jagga Jasoos which ended up delaying the film's release. In his typically oversmart fashion, Ranbir goes on to shush Katrina or speak over her during most of the questions (even when some of the questions are directed towards her).
Similar instances of Ranbir being rude and then covering it up with a smile have been mentioned as one scrolls down the thread.
Similar behaviour with other co-stars: Katrina isn’t the only one to have suffered an awkward interview with Ranbir. In another old interview that has resurfaced, Ranbir can be seen sitting next to his Ae Dil Hai Mushkil co-star Anushka Sharma. He starts off by calling the latter an “anxiety queen”, even mentioning her medication Restyl, as Sharma is visibly uncomfortable. The actress answers back by mentioning that Ranbir does “drugs” and “lines” to keep his mental state intact! The off-camera conversation between the two might have been way more awkward.
A Reddit post on Ranbir discussing Ileana D'Cruz's “belly button” has been drawing similar flak for Kapoor.
Public reactions to the slander: Like everything that trends on Twitter, the thread has been drawing all sorts of mixed responses. While many are glad that people are finally waking up to Ranbir’s impudence, others feel it is mere overanalysis over a relationship that doesn’t need any further discussion. Some are even intent on showing that Katrina Kaif might have had her own share of issues in their troubled and seemingly incompatible relationship.
Is Ranbir an incel? But perhaps the randomest of responses have been by some male users finding the usage of the word “incel” wrong and offensive! @rexiespo’s Twitter thread starts off with the line, “a thread of ranbir kapoor being an incel and being disrespectful towards katrina kaif”. In a general sense, the word incel is liberally used on the Internet for any man (mostly one who prefers to stay online such as a gamer) who is particularly offensive and hostile towards women. In a more literary sense, the word incel is actually short for “involuntary celibate” (as the general assumption is to assume that men with “no action” would tend to be more hostile).
But Ranbir, a self-proclaimed womaniser, would be far from being an involuntary celibate. And for this reason alone, several men ignored the rest of the thread’s context and started debating on whether the actor is an incel or not! The Internet indeed leads to amusing arguments every day…
In the end, Ranbir Kapoor clearly needs to work on his “sitting for an interview” mannerisms before either the “Boycott Bollywood gang” or “cancel culture gang” sharpen their attacks. For how long will his fans, some of whom call themselves “Ranbirians” (yes, that is an actual thing), defend him online?