Kangana Ranaut (born on 23 March 1987) is an Indian actress. She has established a successful career in Bollywood films, and is the recipient of a National Film Award and two Filmfare Awards.
Born in Bhambla, a small town in Himachal Pradesh, Ranaut initially aspired to a career in medicine on the insistence of her parents. Adamant on building her own career path, she relocated to Delhi at age sixteen, where she briefly dabbled with modelling. After training under the theatre director Arvind Gaur, Ranaut made her feature film debut with the 2006 thriller Gangster, for which she was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. She subsequently received praise for portraying emotionally intense characters in the dramas Woh Lamhe (2006), Life in a... Metro (2007) and Fashion (2008). For the last of these, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress and a Filmfare Award in the same category.
Ranaut subsequently featured in the commercially successful films Raaz – The Mystery Continues (2009) and Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai (2010), though was criticised for being typecast in neurotic roles. A comic role in the 2011 box office hit Tanu Weds Manu proved to be a clutter breaker for her, following which she played a series of brief, glamorous roles to little success. She then portrayed a superwoman in the science fiction film Krrish 3 (2013), one of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time, and established herself as a leading actress of Hindi cinema with the comedy-drama Queen (2014).
Early Life and Background:
Ranaut was born on 23 March 1987 at Bhambla (now Surajpur), a small town in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, into a Rajput family. Her mother, Asha Ranaut, is a school teacher, and her father, Amardeep Ranaut, is a businessman. She has an elder sister, Rangoli, who now works as her manager, and a younger brother, Akshat. Her great-grandfather, Sarju Singh Ranaut, was a Member of the Legislative Assembly and her grandfather, was an IAS officer. She grew up in a joint family at their ancestral haveli in Bhambla, and has described her childhood as "simple and happy".
Ranaut has said that she was "stubborn and rebellious" while growing up: "If my father would gift my brother a plastic gun and get a doll for me, I would not accept that. I questioned the discrimination. She didn't subscribe to the stereotypes that were expected of her, and experimented with fashion from a young age: "I would pair up accessories and clothes that, to my neighbours, would seem just bizarre. Ranaut was educated at the DAV School in Chandigarh, where she pursued science as her core subject, and has said that she was "very studious" and "always paranoid about [...] results". She was initially inclined to become a doctor: "I was brought up being told that medicine was a noble choice of career, that I should grow up and be a doctor so I could treat the poor for free. I believed in that, wholeheartedly because that's how kids in those days were trained to 'be good and do good'." A failed unit test in chemistry during her 12th grade led Ranaut to reconsider her career prospect, and despite preparing for the All India Pre Medical Test, she didn't turn up for the exam. Determined to find her "space and freedom", she relocated to Delhi at the age of sixteen. Her decision to not pursue medicine led to "constant arguments" with her parents and her father refused to sponsor her "aimless pursuit".
In Delhi, Ranaut was unsure of what career prospect to choose; the Elite Modelling Agency were impressed by her looks and suggested that she model for them. She took on a few modelling assignments, but generally disliked the career as she found "no scope for creativity". Ranaut, thus, decided to shift focus towards acting, and joined the Asmita Theatre Group, where she trained under the theatre director Arvind Gaur. She has said: "It's because of theatre that I'm so comfortable in films [...] Arvind was very kind. I went to him and said, I'm going to Bombay, and I need a sort of crash course in acting. So, he taught me acting specially, just for an hour everyday." She participated in Gaur's theatre workshop at the India Habitat Centre, acting in several of his plays, including the Girish Karnad-scripted Taledanda. During a screening, one of the male actors went missing; Ranaut who had been "observing the character from a distance and had an idea about the dialogues and body language" played the part along with her original role of a woman. A positive reaction from the audience prompted her to relocate to Mumbai to pursue a career in film, and she enrolled herself for a four-month acting course from Asha Chandra's drama school.
Ranaut struggled with her meager earnings during this period, eating only "bread and aachar (pickle)"; her father offered to contribute financially, but she refused, later remarking that "it [was] the most damaging thing I did in my life, as it scarred my relationship with him." Her decision to act in films deteriorated her relationship with her relatives; her parents were "horrified", thinking that she would be exploited, her grandfather asked her to drop her surname, and they didn't correspond with her for several years. Ranaut later said: "Today, I have everything one can imagine and there is nothing I want from them, although I do a lot for my family and friends today.
Career:
In 2004, the producers Ramesh Sharma and Pahlaj Nilani announced that Ranaut would make her film debut with the Deepak Shivdasani-directed I Love You Boss. The following year, the director Anurag Basu spotted Ranaut at a coffee shop in Mumbai, and offered her a chance to audition for the lead role in the romantic thriller Gangster; she was confirmed for the role after over 20 audition rounds and she subsequently opted out of I Love You Boss to film Gangster. Ranaut was cast in the central role of Simran, an alcoholic woman caught in a romantic triangle between a notorious gangster (played by Shiney Ahuja) and a sympathetic friend (played by Emraan Hashmi). Ranaut was seventeen while filming and said that she "had difficulty first in understanding and then unwinding from the character", describing her craft as "raw and immature." Released in 2006, Gangster emerged as a critical and commercial success and her performance was praised. Raja Sen of Rediff.com said that "Kangana is a remarkable find, the actress coming across with great conviction. Hers is the pivotal character, and an extremely difficult role to essay, but she manages it well [...] Kangana's nuances [of an alcoholic character] are disconcertingly realistic. From the slur to the pout, the glassy eyes to the hesitant gait, she nails the role [...] she does an impressive job, especially for a debut.She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, along with various other debut awards.
Born: March 23, 1987 (age 27), Mandi district, India
Height: 1.73 m
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