After filmmaker Karan Johar expressed his excitement to watch Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency at the Express Adda event in Mumbai on Monday, Kangana has said that she is “scared.” Kangana took to X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday and accused Karan of starting a smear campaign against her when she released her directorial debut Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi in 2019.

Kangana shared, “Ha ha last time when he said he was excited to see Manikarnika, the worse smear campaign of my life was unleashed upon me on its releasing weekend … almost all main actors working in the film were paid to sling mud on me and sabotage the film and suddenly the most successful weekend of my life was turned in to a living nightmare for me … Ha ha I am scared now very scared … because he is excited again 

Before Manikarnika’s release in 2019, Kangana was accused of hijacking the film by original director Krish. The two later shared co-director credit. Actor Sonu Sood left the film midway, and this led to a public spat between Kangana and him, with her accusing him of not wanting to work under a female director, and him citing date issues as the reason for his departure.

At the Express Adda event, Karan was asked about making films on political events, and he said, “The Emergency is being made and I am excited to watch it.” The film is being directed by Kangana, and has her playing the role of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The film is scheduled to release in November 2023.

Karan and Kangana have been involved in a public feud with each other for a few years now. The feud started when Kangana called Karan the “flagbearer of nepotism” as a guest on his talk show Koffee with Karan. She has frequently accused him of promoting nepotism in the Hindi film industry and called him “movie mafia” on many occasions.