Karan Johar, Varun Dhawan face online flak for ‘nepotism chant’ at IIFA 2017

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NEW DELHI: After sparking off a controversy with his nepotism debate at the IIFA Awards in New Jersey over the weekend, filmmaker Karan Johar, actors Saif Ali Khan and Varun Dhawan received flak on social media with Twitteraties calling their act “disappointing”.

Karan and Saif, who were hosting the gala, revisited the much-talked about issue that started in Bollywood when Queen star Kangana Ranaut branded Karan as a “flagbearer of nepotism” on his chat show.

When Varun joined the two actors on the stage at the Metlife Stadium to receive the Best Performance in a Comic Role for Dishoom, Saif joked that the actor had made it big in the industry because of his father, director David Dhawan. “You are here because of your papa,” Saif quipped.

Varun said: “And you’re here because of your mummy (veteran actress Sharmila Tagore).”

Karan then promptly added: “I am here because of my papa (late filmmaker Yash Johar).”

They then said in unison: “Nepotism rocks”.

On Twitter, a string of criticism followed, describing what the personalities said as unfunny and joking about actress Kangana Ranaut in her absence. Those tweeting included Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi and AIB member Tanmay Bhatt.

Here are some tweets:

Abhishek Singhvi: I’d like to see the likes of Karan Johar, Saif and Varun Dhawan try their nepotism humour when Kangana is in their presence. IIFA.

“How is it an “insult” to Kangana If anything it’s a crass/tacky display of how shamelessly nepotistic Bollywood,” one of the users posted.

https://twitter.com/RegaJha/status/886805984697561088

In February this year, Kangana had called Karan Johar ‘intolerant’ towards outsiders and a ‘flag bearer of nepotism’ on his popular talk show Koffee With Karan.

IANS