From Parliament To Fashion Week: Jaya Bachchan And Her Public Outbursts

NDTV

2 days ago

Actor-politician Jaya Bachchan once said that it was her "nature" to lose her cool if she doesn't like or agree with something. From Parliament to family and film industry events, she has been clicked several times, going off the deep end. And today, she lost her cool again when a man tried to take a selfie with her, without her permission.
"What is this?" she said while pushing the man away, leaving him dumbfounded.
The video of her reaction, like many similar videos of hers, is now viral, garnering mixed reactions - some say that the man was intruding in her personal space, while others think she could have been more polite and avoided getting physical.
Whichever side one leans on, it was not the first time that a video of Jaya Bachchan 's snappy demeanour trended on the internet.
"I Hope You Double Up And Fall"
In 2022, a paparazzo stumbled while trying to click her and her entrepreneur granddaughter, Navya Naveli Nanda, together at the Lakme Fashion Week in Mumbai. " Serves you right, Ms Bachchan said to him, adding, "I hope you double up and fall".
A few days later, she was seen lashing out at the paparazzi who were outside the Pratiksha, the bungalow of the Bachchans, to get some photos of the Diwali puja.
"Ye kaise flash kar rahe hain aap (how are you flashing your cameras)? Intruders," she was heard saying.
"I Don't Give A Damn About Trolls"
The same year, on her granddaughter's podcast 'What The Hell Navya', she said she felt "very strongly" about the media. Ms Bachchan said that she despised the people who "interfere in your personal life".
"I hate it. I despise it. I despise the people who interfere in your personal life and fill their stomachs by selling those products. I hate it, I'm disgusted with such people. I always tell them, I say, 'Aapko sharam nahi aati hai (Don't you feel ashamed?)'."
In the same podcast, she said that she doesn't give a "damn" about the trolls. "If people are going to earn their living by putting all my angry speeches on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter, I don't give a damn."
"You have an opinion about them personally, and you have an opinion about the work they do, I understand. You criticise it, you cut it into pieces, I accept. You can say, 'She is a bad actor, a bad parliamentarian,' but you have no business sitting in judgment of my personal character. 'She only knows how to get angry. Angry about what? You're intruding, interfering with my personal (space) when I'm walking somewhere, you're taking my picture. Why? Am I not a human being?" she added.
The next year, during the screening of the movie The Archies, her grandson Agastya Nanda's debut film, she was seen scolding a cameraman. "Don't shout," she said before posing for photos.
Earlier this year, she got irritated at a woman who asked her for a picture at actor Manoj Kumar's prayer meet. Ms Bachchan was talking to some people when the woman tapped on her shoulder. When she turned, a man tried to take a photo of the two together. Then the woman extended her hands toward her. But Ms Bachchan pushed it away and pulled up the man for clicking a photo on such an occasion.
Jaya Bachchan's short temper has not just been reserved for the paparazzi. She also had several run-ins with other politicians, including former Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankhar, who was also the Rajya Sabha Chairman.
"Not Schoolchildren"
During a 2024 session in Rajya Sabha, Ms Bachchan snapped at Mr Dhankhar and said the members of parliament are not "schoolchildren", asking him to treat the opposition MPs respectfully. Her remark came after a question on aviation was skipped during the Question Hour. Ms Bachchan, Deepender Singh Hooda of the Congress and other members of the opposition stood up and asked Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh why that had happened.
"If you or the deputy chairman ask us to sit, we will, but we won't do so when another member gestures at us and tells us to sit. It is our right to question. You tell us you can't take up a question or that there is a problem, and it will be taken up later, we understand; we are not schoolchildren. But treat us respectfully," she said.
In another instance, she got irritated when Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Harivansh Narayan Singh introduced her as ' Jaya Amitabh Bachchan '.
"Sir, sirf Jaya Bachchan bolte to kaafi hojata (It would've been enough to call me Jaya Bachchan)," the Rajya Sabha MP had said in the house on July 29 last year.
"This is something new, that women will be recognised by the name of their husbands. They (women) have no existence or achievements of their own," she added, despite the deputy chairman clarifying that he was just reading out the name mentioned in the records.
Then, more recently, the 77-year-old sparked a row when she questioned Operation Sindoor's name and asked why it was named so when the Pahalgam terror attack "destroyed the sindoor" of so many women.
When the MPs from the ruling party interrupted her speech, she got irritated and said, "Either you speak or I will speak. When you speak, I don't interrupt. When a woman speaks, I never interrupt. So please mind your tongue".
She also asked Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Priyanka Chaturvedi not to control her when she asked her to calm down. "Priyanka, don't control me," said the veteran actor, evoking laughter from the MP sitting next to her.