Producer Ekta Kapoor’s professional relationship continues with actor Kangana Ranaut, despite their differences in opinion. Kangana can currently be seen as the host of the reality show Lock Upp, produced by Ekta Kapoor
In an interview with The Quint, Ekta explained why she chose Kangana to host the show, and admitted that some times, she doesn’t agree with her point of view on certain matters, but said that she believes her to be a non-biased person, by and large.
She said, “I thought of her two years ago. As the format was forming, I felt digital needs a shakeup, a clutter-breaker. And she’s pretty much a clutter-breaker. And not only controversial, she’s a clutter breaker. Thought process wise also. Secondly, I wanted to do a reality show with a female host. I feel that was missing in India. We don’t take this female host seriously because we are very fitting in girls. Girls will come in the typical saree look and they will stand there and giggle…Women are doing that in a lot of other spheres but she’s the right person to bring in for this thought that female host, female running the show and taking on a whole captive reality format forward.”
Citing comedian Munawar Faruqui’s example, Ekta said that despite their perceived political differences, Kangana gets along well with him on the show. She continued, “I’ve done three films with her and I’ve had a great experience. I’ve known her to be pretty non-biased like if you see her now also with Munawar and her, they get along famously on the show. That shows the non-bias is there. She won’t go on a show and say, ‘Ok I don’t get along with this guy or his political beliefs so I’m not gonna like him on the show’. She comes in, she’s pretty non-biased, she likes the person how he’s playing his game and I love that about her. I knew that she’s interesting. She has (her) points of views and they’re pretty strong and that sometimes rattles a lot of people, sometimes I don’t even agree with them but mostly there’s mutual respect and that’s the greatest reason we can work together.”
Lock Upp puts a bunch of diverse people in a jail-setting, which is overseen by Kangana and a jailor–Karan Kundrra. On Thursday’s episode, Shivam Sharma became the first finalist after beating Anjali Arora in the Ticket to Finale task. He would be joined by four others over the next two weeks.
