Kangana Ranaut, Karan Johar's debate on nepotism in Bollywood is hitting (wrong) headlines

With the nepotism debate taking new turns everyday, everyone seems to have an opinion on it. The Kangana Ranaut-Karan Johar row began on the latter’s talk-show, Koffee With Karan. Ranaut had called him “the flagbearer of nepotism” in Bollywood, referring to the filmmaker’s preference for star kids. Johar brought up the debate again while hosting IIFA awards 2017 along with Saif Ali Khan and Varun Dhawan. The trio made a nepotism joke , aimed at the actress on stage. [caption id=“attachment_3321502” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Karan Johar and Kangana Ranaut. File photo.[/caption] Since then, a lot has transpired - apologies have been issued and sides have been chosen and open letters have been written. However this one takes the cake.  ScoopWhoop recently wrote a satirical response on behalf of Ranaut. The spoof piece had the actress apologising for speaking her mind. “I want to sincerely apologise to Karanji and tell him that I will never utter the word nepotism again,” read a few lines from the piece. The piece was clearly meant to not be taken literally. However, some people and media houses could not detect the sarcasm and passed it off as Ranaut’s actual response to the fiasco. There is no doubt that this row has been fodder for a lot of news organisations because it involves some of Bollywood’s most influential celebrities and the favourism that exists in the industry. Although the post was shared by organisations which deemed it as the Queen actress’ official statement, Ranaut had no involvement in the fabrication process of the piece. This highlights weak judgement and hasty decisions, all of which lead to fake news. Fake news is as important an issue as nepotism and needs to be tackled. Therefore, not being misled by such information is imperative for uninterrupted, healthy discourse. A little fact-checking could save one from having an uninformed opinion.