Twinkle Khanna hit back at ‘mediocre’ Naseeruddin Shah for insulting her late father Rajesh Khanna: ‘Attacking a man who can’t respond…’

Twinkle Khanna didn’t keep quiet when Naseeruddin Shah publicly slammed her late father Rajesh Khanna’s capabilities.

Dimple Kapadia separated from Rajesh Khanna in the early 1980s.

Twinkle Khanna had a complicated relationship with her father, the legendary actor Rajesh Khanna. She moved out of his house with her sister Rinke when their mother Dimple Kapadia decided that she had had enough and wanted to divorce him.

Twinkle was raised mainly by her mother, but had her father’s support when she decided to become an actor herself. Regardless of their ups and downs, she was present at his funeral in 2012, and some years later, stood up in his defense when actor Naseeruddin Shah criticised Khanna publicly.

Responding to his comments, she wrote on X (formerly Twitter), “Sir if u can’t respect the living ,respect the dead-mediocrity is attacking a man who can’t respond @NaseerudinShah.” The veteran actor, a legend in his own right, had criticised Khanna in a 2016 Hindustan Times interview.

He’d said, “In fact, it was the 70s when mediocrity came in Hindi films. That’s when the actor called Rajesh Khanna joined the industry. For all his success, I think Mr Khanna was a very limited actor. In fact, he was a poor actor. Intellectually, he wasn’t the most alert person I have ever met. His taste ruled the industry.”

Naseeruddin Shah isn’t the only industry personality who has criticised Khanna. Others who worked with him spoke about his arrogance, his tardiness, and his insecurity. In a chat with Amitabh Bachchan for Movie magazine, Khanna admitted that he celebrated every misstep that Bachchan made in his career. Bachchan was seen as Khanna’s successor at the pinnacle of the Hindi film industry.

At an event, Twinkle’s comments about being uninterested in writing her father’s biography left many wondering if old wounds were yet to heal. She said, “I am interested in stories which have layers to it, which have more ramifications. It is great to write a story on a single person, but for that, there has to be layers and their stories need to have message.”

Dimple had praised Twinkle for being incredibly strong after her split from Khanna. At a 2019 FICCI FLO event in Jaipur, she said, “She’s an amazing child. She must have been all of seven or eight when I got separated. The kind of maturity…

She was only wanting to take care of me, to see if I was okay, if everything was alright with me. There are lots of things I can’t say because of you know what… But she was like my friend. Then she turned into a monster mother.”