Bollywood actor and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of Parliament Kangana Ranaut has sharply criticised a television news channel over its coverage of Bhojpuri folk singer Neha Singh Rathore, saying it is shameful to raise TRP by harming a woman's dignity. Her remarks were reported by Nepali news outlets Nagarik News and OnlineKhabar on 18 October 2026. The intervention places one of India's best-known actor-politicians at the centre of a conversation about how television media treats women, and whether the race for ratings can ever justify coverage that damages a person's reputation.
'It is shameful to increase TRP by tarnishing the reputation of women'
According to Nagarik News, which carried her quote in its report, Ranaut was unsparing in her assessment of the channel's journalism. In her view, the broadcaster's coverage of Rathore was, at its core, a bid to lift its Television Rating Points, or TRP, at the cost of the singer's dignity. She described that trade-off, bluntly, as shameful.
OnlineKhabar, which also reported her comments, framed her objection in similar terms. The outlet's account presented the BJP parliamentarian as objecting to the very premise of the coverage: that a woman's reputation had been used as material for viewership. For Ranaut, the issue was not merely one of editorial taste but of basic respect for a woman's standing in public life.
Her criticism, as reported, can be broken down into three central points:
- The channel's coverage of Neha Singh Rathore was, in her assessment, damaging to the singer's dignity and reputation.
- The apparent motive behind that coverage was to increase TRP, the audience ratings on which Indian news channels compete.
- Pursuing ratings in that manner, she said, was shameful, because it came at the expense of a woman.
The ratings metric behind the remark
TRP, or Television Rating Points, is the standard measure of how many people are watching a given channel or programme, and it sits at the heart of the economics of Indian television. Higher ratings translate into larger audiences, which in turn attract advertising revenue. In a market as crowded and competitive as Indian news television, the pressure to hold viewers is constant.
Ranaut's remarks speak directly to that pressure. By arguing that a channel had harmed a woman's dignity in order to boost its numbers, she aligned herself with a familiar criticism of ratings-driven news, namely that the hunger for audiences can push coverage towards sensationalism and away from fairness. Her choice of words, as reflected in the reports, left little doubt about where she placed the blame.
The coverage that drew Ranaut's objection
At the centre of the dispute is Neha Singh Rathore, described in the reports as a Bhojpuri folk singer. The reports did not set out in detail what the channel aired, but they made clear that Ranaut's objection was aimed squarely at the manner of the coverage. In her telling, the coverage served to tarnish the singer's reputation, and it did so in order to serve the channel's ratings.
That framing matters. By choosing to speak on the singer's behalf, Ranaut cast the episode not as a routine disagreement over editorial choices but as a question of dignity. In her account, the measure of the coverage was the harm it did to a woman, and the measure of the channel's conduct was the audience it gained from that harm.
A politician who rarely stays silent
OnlineKhabar described Ranaut as an actress known for her rebellious image who does not stay silent on social and political issues. That description captures the unusual arc of her public life. She is simultaneously a figure of Hindi cinema, where she built a reputation for plain speaking and defiance, and a serving Member of Parliament for the BJP, combining two demanding public roles.
Seen in that light, her remarks on the Rathore coverage fit a familiar pattern. The OnlineKhabar description of her as someone who does not stay silent on social and political issues is borne out by the very fact of her intervention in this case: a sharp-edged critique of a television channel's treatment of a woman, offered publicly and without hedging. For her supporters, it is further evidence of the rebellious persona that has defined her career; for her critics, it is another instance of a parliamentarian wading into a media controversy.
What the reports said, and what was left unsaid
The reports, published on 18 October 2026 by Nagarik News and OnlineKhabar, centred on Ranaut's comments and the reasoning behind them. Neither report, as carried, recorded a response from the channel concerned, nor any comment from Neha Singh Rathore herself. What they did establish was the substance of Ranaut's charge: that a news channel had pursued ratings by tarnishing a woman's reputation, and that in her view this was shameful.
Whether the channel responds, and whether the episode prompts any wider scrutiny of ratings-driven coverage of women, remains to be seen. For now, Ranaut's remarks stand as a pointed reminder of the criticism that television journalism invites when, in her words, it seeks to increase TRP by tarnishing the reputation of women.
