13 August,2026 04:09 PM IST | Mumbai | mid-day online correspondent
Kangana Ranaut (Pic/Instagram)
Kangana Ranaut has clarified her recent remarks on Gen-Z after facing backlash for calling the generation "gutter" over the protests at Jantar Mantar against the alleged NEET paper leak. Addressing the criticism, the actor-politician said her comments were aimed at the crowd present at the protest, not the entire generation, and challenged critics to find otherwise.
Taking to her Instagram Story, she said, "The youth of this country? If we speak of Gen Z, then the population is around 30-35 crore. Around 10,000 people were at Jantar Mantar, where more than half of them were Shabana Azmi-type people, so many age groups were present. If we specifically speak of Gen Z, then only 2,000 of them were present. So, how is it a Gen Z protest?"
"It was for the crowd which had gathered outside. I had specifically spoken about them. I am giving an open challenge to pick out any quote where I directed it at the entire generation. Don't throw this useless agenda at me. I am not against the youth because I am one of them."
Meanwhile, Kangana had earlier slammed the Gen Z protests. "Never in my life have I seen so much ugliness in one place. These reels from Gen Z protests are puke-inducing. The way they speak and the kind of language they are using... never in my life have I seen everything in each and every frame so jarring and so crass all at once.... I call them Generation Gutter. Some of them have nothing to offer to the system. They are not good at studies...," she had said last month.
After backlash for her remarks, Kangana had said she had not made a blanket statement about the protest at Jantar Mantar over the NEET-UG paper leak and that she "specifically referred to some people or some women". "Those who call themselves cockroaches, and we say that cockroaches emerge from gutters, what is wrong with that? My point is simply this: if people label themselves as cockroaches, and we say the gutter is their home, why should they be offended? I certainly don't consider myself a cockroach. If someone were to say I live in a gutter, I would deny it. But if someone claims to be a cockroach, then naturally, they would live in a gutter. Where else? But to claim that I was referring to all youth is simply not the case," she told news agency ANI on Wednesday.
Kangana was also in the news after she called Naseeruddin Shah "lomdi" (fox). She slammed the actor over his "dog with a bone" remark about Bollywood celebrities staying silent on the Jharkhand student protests. She questioned his loyalty to India and called him a "lomdi" in a sharp social media post.
