Kangana Ranaut, an Indian cinema actor and a former Member of Parliament of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has taken to social media to address the debates and rumors going on in the media. The viral news in all of these is just one thing, but also a larger and more important message: a life plan is needed to live a purposeful life through which I will be satisfied with myself.
Kangana in her social media post stated that “channelise your energies into a constructive path, you can avoid jail, depression.” And that was a message that was quickly picked up by so many people online who felt it is best to channel your energy and thoughts towards positive action, not getting involved in controversy or negativity.
Kangana’s comments occurred in a time of speculation and debate on the internet, but she did not directly address or comment on the validity of the claims being circulated. She instead focused on a broader topic of self-improvement and responsible decision making, and asked her followers to reflect on their choices and the consequences of their actions.
She is also a very open person and often shares her views on a variety of social and political issues on her own online platforms and always talks about many issues that go beyond entertainment, and has very candid public debate and public discourse and that of discipline, mental health, relationships, and public speaking. And in her previous statements, she has said that productivity and personal growth should be the focus of her career.
The social media users have been somewhat divided on her recent comments though. Some of her audience found her advice positive and appreciated it helpful and the fact that they appreciated the positive tone of her message, but others were sceptical of the timing and the context of her message and the subject matter. This is common to Kangana’s social media posts as well, where she gets a lot of attention and discussion and comment with her blog and has been a frequent theme for Kangana on different platforms.
With media and social media so ubiquitous, experts and observers talk about how to distinguish fact from speculation when talking about personal life. We can only make sense of the world of social media in such a way that we are not distracted from the idea that what we say and do has consequences.
Kangana’s message has since transcended the online noise and opened up a conversation about how we can channel our emotions and our energies into good things. And her comments may be thought of as general life advice or just a comment on the online conversation at hand, but many of her followers had taken it as an affirmation of the self-accountability and self-development of their own lives instead of being negative and distracted with others.
There has been no official response to all the claims in the digital realm at the time of writing, and so we wonder and talk about the implications of the words that she said and her situation. And social media can be a conversation, and as such can cause us to reflect on and to talk about and to think about, and can make people go forward and to be positive in their own life.
