Kiran Mane, on 13 January 2022, was dropped from the Marathi television show Mughli Zali Ho by the production house after she was accused of aggressive behavior with her female co-actors during the shooting of the show. In an interview, the makers of the show revealed the reason behind his removal from the show and said,
The production house has confirmed that the decision to sack Mr Mane from the show was due to his mistreatment of several co-stars on the show, especially the female protagonist of the show. Several complaints were made by her co-actors, director and other unit members of the show against her constant abusive and aggressive behavior towards her. Despite several warnings to Mr Mane, he continued to violate basic decency and decorum on the sets of the show. Given our zero tolerance policy for any abusive behavior towards women, we support the decision to sack her from the show.
Without any prior suspension notice, Kiran, who plays Vilas Patil in the show, was asked not to report for the shoot as she was replaced by another actor. In an interview, he opposed the allegations against him and said,
I’ve never done anything. I don’t understand why they suddenly got up and started accusing me. The statement issued by the channel is completely baseless. There is no truth in his statement. I have never misbehaved with any co-actors. The channel has nothing to say now and hence is making these allegations against me to make my side clear. My co-stars were like my sisters. I had a fight with my co-actress Sharvani Pillai a long time ago, over the latter’s confession. Apart from this, I have never had a fight with anyone. If they had a problem with my behaviour, why didn’t they file a complaint against me? Why didn’t they inform me about these complaints? Is it right to fire someone who plays the lead role in an overnight show without giving any valid reason? The makers should have heard my side before evicting me from the show.”
According to sources, Kiran alleged that the BJP government was the main reason behind her removal from the show as she often shared her political views on social media, which were not liked by the party leaders. Further, he revealed that it was not his inappropriate behavior towards his female co-actors, but a tweet by him, which was indirectly linked to the 14th Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi. Without naming her or mentioning the incident, Kiran posted on Twitter in which she slammed Narendra Modi for his visit to Punjab on January 5, 2022, which was canceled due to security breach. He tweeted in Marathi language, in which it was written,
Despite having one or two in the audience, we never canceled our theater show. We always tried to pretend that the show was housefull and returned home. Our chest is full of courage.”
Kiran revealed in an interview that soon after her tweet, she was heavily criticized by party supporters, abused in the comments section, and even threatened with removal from the show Mughli Zali Ho.
In an interview, BJP Maharashtra chief spokesperson Keshav Upadhyay denied the allegations leveled by Kiran against the BJP government and said,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many BJP leaders are getting trolled on social media..if anyone wants to become big by attacking them, then so be it…we respect freedom of expression. Mane’s allegations are false. No BJP leader is behind his removal. It is a matter between the channel and the actor and we have nothing to do with it. Instead of trying to drag the BJP into this unrelated controversies, they should answer their allegations.
Despite the hatred for his posts, many people also came in his support. Dhananjay Munde, a member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), accused the channel Star Pravah of cultural terrorism as the makers of the show, under political pressure, kicked him out of the show without any prior notice. He took to Twitter to support Kiran Mane and posted a tweet which read,
An actor like Kiran Mane expresses himself about political subjects because he has got freedom of expression. But Star Pravah has removed him due to political pressure and trolling. It is a sign of being a victim of cultural terrorism.”
Kiran filed a defamation suit against Panorama Production House on 31 January 2022, claiming that the allegations against her were baseless, and sought a compensation of Rs 5 crore due to the financial and personal damages caused by her. .
In an interview, Kiran claimed that her posts often contained a satirical approach, which was well taken up by members of political parties other than the BJP party and said,
Read all my (Facebook) posts. The poison of casteism will not be found anywhere. You will not find that I have criticized anyone by hitting them below the belt. When we used to work in theatre, we used to criticize Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. Congress leaders also praised us for this. He did not say that you should not criticize us or make any such threats. But now if we write even one sentence, we are threatened by saying ‘How can you write this?
