Illustration showing Chirag Paswa, Kangana Ranaut with the movie they co-starred in, in the background
Credit: PTI, IMDb Photos
India has seen actors enter politics, in several instances, leveraging their fame for votes, and Kangana Ranaut is no exception. After a rollercoaster career of hits, flops, and controversies, 37-year-old Kangana jumped into politics this March.
She is running for Lok Sabha on a BJP ticket from Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. Even as Kangana made waves with her political debut, her NDA colleague Chirag Paswan, leader of the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), caused quite a stir 1,400 kilometres away in Bihar with his high-voltage campaign.
Beyond the fact that they have star candidates in the NDA block, Bihar’s Hajipur and Himachal’s’ Mandi also have something in common: Chirag and Kangana have co-starred in a Bollywood flick.
Chirag debuted in the 2011 movie Miley Naa Miley Hum before he became a major political figure in Bihar politics. Kangana paired with Chirag in the movie that bombed at the box office.
It also marked the worst opening among Kangana’s films, failing to cross even the Rs 1-crore mark, and had to be quickly yanked from the screens.
Following the disastrous debut, Chirag contested the Lok Sabha elections from Bihar’s Jamui constituency and won by a landslide. Kangana, however, continued her Bollywood career.
Recalling his debut movie with Kangana in a 2023 interview with Brut India, Chirag said he was glad to have done the movie with her.
"Bhagavan ka shukr hai ye film maine Kangana ke saath us waqt ki. Aaj kar raha hota, tho nepotism me jis tarike se … the way she highlights this issue, tho roz meri hi class lagti (Thank god I did this movie with Kangana back then. She would have taken my class every day had I done the film now,” he quipped, referring to Kangana’s outspoken stance on nepotism in Bollywood.
It would be interesting to see if Chirag and Kangana could deliver a political hit this elections, unlike the bombed movie.