Kangana Ranaut-Taapsee Pannu Feud Explained: From ‘Sasti Copy’ Jibe To Latest War Of Words

Written By: Entertainment Desk

Aug 24, 2026 13:02 IST ⓘ

Full timeline of Kangana Ranaut and Taapsee Pannu's long-running feud.

Bollywood feuds have erupted over clashing release dates, award snubs, casting decisions and ex-partners. The Kangana Ranaut-Taapsee Pannu saga has a far stranger origin: a compliment. Taapsee Pannu praised the trailer of a Kangana film, did not mention its leading lady by name, and soon found herself branded a “sasti copy” by Kangana’s sister Rangoli Chandel. That phrase did not disappear with the average life cycle of a social media controversy. It became the running refrain of a dispute that expanded from curly hair and movie titles to nepotism, political opinions, professional credibility and, most recently, the actresses’ respective upbringings.

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Kangana subsequently adopted Rangoli’s description herself, while Taapsee alternated between sarcastically reclaiming it and insisting that there could be no personal feud between two people who barely knew each other.

Seven years after the label first appeared, it returned during Taapsee’s promotion of ‘Gandhari’ in August 2026. Here is how a throwaway rapid-fire answer and one missing name produced one of Bollywood’s longest-running wars of words.

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Check out the timeline below:

September 2018: “Double Filter” Comment That Planted The Seed

The story actually began almost a year before “sasti copy” entered Bollywood’s controversy dictionary. During the promotions of ‘Manmarziyaan’ in September 2018, Taapsee participated in a rapid-fire interview alongside Anurag Kashyap, Abhishek Bachchan and Vicky Kaushal. Asked what she would gift Kangana, Taapsee answered: a “double filter”. The response appeared to be a joke about Kangana’s famously unfiltered way of speaking, not the opening shot in a feud.

Taapsee later explained that she considered Kangana an honest and opinionated person and that even she and Anurag occasionally needed filters. Kangana’s camp, however, interpreted the remark as disrespectful. By the time Taapsee praised one of her films the following year, the old joke was waiting backstage for a dramatic comeback.

July 2019: One Trailer Compliment And One Very Expensive Omission

The trailer of Kangana Ranaut and Rajkummar Rao’s ‘Judgementall Hai Kya’ arrived on July 2, 2019. The next day, Taapsee praised it on Twitter, describing it as “so cool”. She did not name Kangana, Rajkummar or any other cast member.

That omission angered Rangoli Chandel, who was also handling Kangana’s professional affairs at the time. Rangoli accused Taapsee of running her career by copying Kangana while refusing to acknowledge her. She revived the “double filter” comment and ended the tweet by calling Taapsee a “sasti copy”. A perfectly ordinary trailer appreciation had suddenly acquired more drama than the trailer itself.

July 2019: Anurag Kashyap Steps In And Kangana Backs Her Sister

Anurag Kashyap, who had directed Taapsee in ‘Manmarziyaan’ and had professional ties with Kangana through ‘Queen’, immediately came to Taapsee’s defence. He told Rangoli that she was “going too far” and argued that praising a trailer naturally included appreciation for all its elements, including Kangana’s performance.

Rangoli told Anurag to back off, maintaining that the real problem was not the missing name but Taapsee’s earlier comments about Kangana. Kangana then publicly supported Rangoli, saying her sister was protecting her in the same way Anurag was protecting Taapsee. She alleged that Taapsee had made derogatory remarks about her, including calling her an extremist and saying she needed a filter.

July-August 2019: Taapsee Turns “Sasti Copy” Into Punchline

Taapsee initially said that she had no time for the mudslinging. Her eventual response, however, was delivered with the sort of dry humour that ensured the label would not remain a one-sided insult. She said curly hair and honest opinions were not protected by copyright. Since Kangana had described herself as the highest-paid actress, Taapsee joked that earning less perhaps made her the “sasti” version. She also maintained that being compared to an actress as talented as Kangana could be treated as a compliment.

The sarcasm continued in August. When an AajTak article called Taapsee Bollywood’s new queen, she requested that Kangana be allowed to remain the “Queen”; otherwise, she joked, she would again be accused of copying her. Taapsee later said she had once placed Kangana on a pedestal and was disappointed by the attacks. She also questioned Kangana’s demand that women support other women, pointing out that she had not heard Kangana praise the female ensemble of ‘Mission Mangal’.

July 2020: Nepotism Debate Turns Spat Uglier

The conversation changed dramatically following Sushant Singh Rajput’s death in June 2020, when nepotism and the treatment of outsiders became the subjects of an intense industry-wide debate. In a Republic TV interview, Kangana referred to Taapsee and Swara Bhasker as “needy outsiders” and “B-grade actresses”. She argued that although they were more talented and better-looking than certain star children, they still did not receive the same opportunities. In Kangana’s telling, their careers proved her allegations about nepotism even if they refused to support her position.

Taapsee responded by joking that, after the Class 10 and 12 board results, Bollywood’s official grades had apparently also been announced. Her more serious answer was that she had been working steadily, often shooting four films a year, and did not accept Kangana’s suggestion that she was struggling for employment. She also accused Kangana of trying to divide the industry, arguing that insiders and outsiders should fight for a fairer system rather than attack one another.

This was the real ideological break. Kangana viewed Taapsee as an outsider who had benefited from her battles but refused to challenge the industry establishment. Taapsee rejected the idea that Kangana owned the outsider narrative – or that every self-made actor was required to share her methods, allies and political positions.

2021: From Farmers’ Protests To Income Tax Searches, Labels Keep Returning

By 2021, practically any disagreement between the two could reactivate their old vocabulary. During the controversy surrounding international comments on the farmers’ protests, Taapsee wrote that if one tweet could rattle a country’s unity, people should strengthen their values instead of becoming “propaganda teachers”. Kangana responded by calling her a “B-grade” thinker, a freeloader and a burden on the country. Taapsee, without naming her, joked again that words such as “Queen,” along with curly hair and opinionated behaviour, had apparently been copyrighted.

In March, after Income Tax searches connected to Taapsee, Anurag and the former Phantom Films operation, Taapsee used a series of tweets to dispute claims about a Paris bungalow, a Rs 5 crore receipt and a previous raid. She ended with the postscript “not so sasti anymore”. Kangana fired back that Taapsee would “always” remain “sasti” and added several harsher accusations. The original jibe had now become a reusable weapon – and something Taapsee occasionally used as her own sarcastic shield.

The exchange became more personal in April when Kangana responded to an unflattering online description of Taapsee by calling her a “she-man”. After being criticised, Kangana maintained that she had intended it as a compliment about Taapsee’s “tough looks”.

June 2021: Taapsee Calls Kangana “Irrelevant”, Kangana Returns To B-Grade Attack

After Kangana’s Twitter account was permanently suspended, Taapsee was asked whether she missed her presence on the platform. Taapsee said Kangana was “too irrelevant” to her personal life. She described her merely as a professional colleague and said she felt neither love nor hatred towards her – only indifference.

Kangana responded through Instagram Stories, alleging that Taapsee had asked producers for roles she had rejected and had once been proud of being described as a lower-budget Kangana. She again called Taapsee a B-grade actress and told her to promote her film without using Kangana’s name. The feud had developed a peculiar loop: Taapsee would say Kangana did not matter to her, and Kangana would argue that mentioning her proved precisely the opposite.

2023: Taapsee Leaves Door Open But Kangana Defends Old Remarks

The temperature appeared to drop in March 2023. In an interview with The Lallantop, Taapsee said she would not turn away if Kangana appeared before her; she would greet her because the problem, in her opinion, was not on her side. She again described Kangana as an excellent actress and said she had initially been shocked by the “sasti copy” remark because she had admired her. Taapsee also recalled briefly greeting Kangana at a screening of ‘Pink’.

Kangana was not ready to revise the historical record. In October 2023, she defended the B-grade comment and Rangoli’s original intervention, alleging that Taapsee had built her career partly from roles Kangana rejected and had spoken disrespectfully despite being inspired by her. Kangana nevertheless said she did not pay much attention to Taapsee and wished her professional success.

February 2026: Taapsee Says There Was Never Two-Sided Fight

Taapsee sounded even more conciliatory during a February 2026 conversation with Shubhankar Mishra. She argued that a fight requires two people to clash and maintained that she had never initiated one with Kangana. She challenged viewers to find a statement in which she had personally attacked the actress, while repeating that she had no objection to being compared with a performer she considered brilliant.

Taapsee said she was open to friendship, would respectfully greet Kangana because she was her senior, and could guarantee only her own behaviour – not Kangana’s response. She also suggested that somebody may have benefited from turning two outspoken female outsiders against each other. For a moment, the controversy appeared ready for retirement.

August 2026: Taapsee Says They Have Never Met And Brings Up Upbringing

The peace did not last. At the India Today Woman Summit on August 22, 2026, Taapsee was asked whether she and Kangana had mended their differences. After joking that she now had several controversies to choose from, Taapsee said she had not met Kangana either before or after their “so-called issues” began.

She added that her opinion of Kangana reflected her own upbringing, manner of speaking and way of perceiving things, just as Kangana’s conduct reflected hers. She left it to audiences to decide “who comes from where”. The statement came while Taapsee was promoting ‘Gandhari’, directed by Devashish Makhija and scheduled to premiere on Netflix on September 3, 2026.

August 2026: Kangana Revives “Sasti Copy”

Kangana interpreted Taapsee’s comments as an attack on her parents and background. In two Instagram Stories, the actress-politician once again called Taapsee a “sasti copy,” described ‘Gandhari’ as a B-grade film and asked why Taapsee’s parents had not produced someone “original”. She defended her own family as educated and distinguished, invoked her Rajput-zamindar background and made disparaging comments about Taapsee’s upbringing.

Taapsee’s first apparent response contained only two words: “Hence, proved”. She did not name Kangana, but the timing left little mystery about how the post would be interpreted.

Taapsee then clarified her position directly to HTCity. She said she had never been offended by the “sasti copy” description and was happy to be compared with a phenomenal actress. She explained that she had only said a person’s way of speaking reflects their upbringing; whether that reflection was good or bad had been left unstated. If Kangana assumed it was demeaning, Taapsee argued, that revealed Kangana’s own interpretation of her comments. She ended by saying that one needed “proper education and upbringing” to understand what she had meant.

Seven years later, neither side has moved far from that original position. Taapsee continues to insist that there was never a personal fight, while Kangana continues to see disrespect in her comments. And “sasti copy” remains the matchstick capable of setting the entire argument alight again.