Kangana Ranaut on Mahesh Babu’s comment: ‘Bollywood can definitely not afford him, they’ve left behind everyone’

Adding to the ongoing controversy around Mahesh Babu’s comments on Bollywood, Kangana Ranaut has said that the Telugu star was right, and Bollywood can certainly not afford stars like him. She was speaking at the second trailer launch of her upcoming film Dhaakad.

Last week, Mahesh Babu was asked about an appearance in Hindi films and he said that Bollywood ‘couldn’t afford’ him. However, he later clarified that he does not want to work for ‘another industry’ and wants to focus on Telugu films alone.

Asked to comment on Mahesh’s statement, Kangana told the media, “He’s right, Bollywood cannot afford Mahesh Babu because I know for a fact that many filmmakers offer him many movies and he and his generation singlehandedly have made the Telugu film industry the number 1 film industry in India. So now, Bollywood can definitely not afford them.”

“Why create controversies on small things? If he said that in some context, I think it only makes sense. We can also say Hollywood cannot afford us or say whatever way we want to convey our point. But here’s one thing, I think he has shown respect for his work and industry which is why he has reached the level he is at today and we cannot deny that. The Telugu film industry did not get anything on a platter. They’ve left behind everyone, even the Tamil industry, in recent years. We have lots to learn from them. As for the languages, I have talked about it at length. I believe all languages in our country are equally respectable. It is a small thing that we respect each other’s languages,” she said.

Kangana also added that a non-Marathi speaking person going to Maharashtra must learn Marathi and a non-Hindi speaking person going to north India must learn Hindi.