Rani Mukherjee born on 21 March 1978) is an Indian film actress. Through her successful Bollywood acting career, she has become one of the most high-profile celebrities in India. Mukherjee has received numerous awards and nominations, including seven Filmfare Awards, and her film roles have been cited as a significant departure from the traditional portrayal of women in mainstream Hindi cinema.
Although Mukerji was born into the Mukherjee-Samarth family, in which her parents and relatives were members of the Indian film industry, she did not aspire to pursue a career in film. However, while still a teenager she dabbled with acting by playing a supporting role in her father's 1992 Bengali language film Biyer Phool, and later accepted a leading role in the 1997 social drama Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat on the insistence of her mother. The following year, she began a full-time career in film and gained recognition for a supporting role in the blockbuster romance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. After this initial success in her career, Mukherjee films fared poorly at the box office for the next three years. Her career prospects improved in 2002 when Yash Raj Films cast her as the star of the critically acclaimed relationship drama Saathiya.
By 2004, Mukerji had established herself as a leading actress of Bollywood with roles in the romantic comedy Hum Tum and the dramas Yuva and Veer-Zaara. She achieved further success for portraying a deaf, blind and mute woman in the highly acclaimed 2005 drama Black and an unfaithful wife in the 2006 box office hit Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna. Mukerji then collaborated with Yash Raj Films on several unsuccessful films which led critics to criticize her for choosing poor roles and pairing with the same set of actors. The 2011 semi-biographical thriller No One Killed Jessica proved to be her first commercial success in four years, and she followed it with a critically acclaimed performance in the 2012 supernatural thriller Talaash: The Answer Lies Within.
In addition to acting in films, Mukerji has been actively involved with several humanitarian causes and is vocal about issues faced by women and children. She has participated in concert tours and stage shows, and featured as a talent judge for the 2009 reality show Dance Premier League. Despite constant media speculation, she remains guarded about her personal life and is sometimes labelled a recluse by members of the media.
Early life and background:
Rani Mukherjee was born in Mumbai on 21 March 1978. Her father, Ram Mukherjee (born to the Mukherjee-Samarth family), is a former film director and one of the founders of Filmalaya Studios. Her mother, Krishna Mukherjee, is a former playback singer. Her elder brother, Raja Mukherjee, is a film producer and director. Her maternal aunt, Debashree Roy, is a Bengali film actress and her paternal cousin, Kajol, is a Hindi film actress and her contemporary. Another paternal cousin, Ayan Mukerji, is a scriptwriter and film director. Despite her parents and most of her relatives being members of the Indian film industry, Mukerji was disinterested in pursuing a career in film. She said, "there were already too many actresses at home and I wanted to be someone different".
Mukherjee received her education at Maneckji Cooper High School in Juhu and graduated with a degree in Home Science from SNDT Women's University. She is a trained Odissi dancer and began learning the dance form while in the tenth grade. As part of an annual tradition, the Mukherjee family celebrates the festival of Durga Puja in the suburban neighbourhood of Santacruz every year. Mukherjee, a practising Hindu, takes part in the festivities with her entire family.
At the age of fourteen, Mukherjee experimented with acting by portraying a supporting role in her father's Bengali language film Biyer Phool (1992).The film starred Prosenjit and Indrani Haldar in lead roles and narrates the story of two sisters; Mukerji played the younger sibling of Haldar's character. In 1994, director Salim Khan approached her to play the lead female role in his directorial, Aa Gale Lag Jaa. Her father disapproved of a full-time career in film at such a young age, so she rejected the offer. When Khan approached her with another film offer to play the protagonist of the social drama Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat, Mukerji accepted the role due to her mother's insistence that she pursue acting on an experimental basis. Before she began work on the film, Mukerji trained at Roshan Taneja's acting institute.
Career:
Mukherjee portrayed a rape victim who is forced to marry her rapist in the 1997 film Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat. Although a commercial failure, Mukherjee performance was praised, and she won a special recognition trophy at the annual Screen Awards ceremony. Following the film's failure, Mukherjee returned to college to complete her education. However, inspired by her cousin Kajol's success in Bollywood, she decided to pursue a full-time career in film.
In 1998, Mukherjee starred opposite Aamir Khan in Vikram Bhatt's Ghulam (1998), a moderate commercial success. Though her role in the film was small, the song "Aati Kya Khandala" earned her widespread recognition. Due to Mukherjee's broken voice texture, Bhatt hired a dubbing artist with a much higher pitched voice to dub for her lines. When asked if the director's decision to not use her voice in the film affected her, she said that her voice was dubbed as it "did not suit the character".
Later that year, Karan Johar cast Mukerji opposite Shahrukh Khan and her cousin, Kajol, in his big-budget directorial debut Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. The role was originally written for Twinkle Khanna, but when she rejected the role, Johar approached several leading actresses, all of whom refused the offer. He subsequently cast Mukherjee after she volunteered to play the role. Johar had originally intended that a dubbing artist dub Mukherjee's lines in the film, but she improved her diction and eventually dubbed for her own lines. She portrayed Tina Malhotra, a college student who is in a relationship with Khan's character. Writing for India Today, film critic Nandita Chowdhury considered Mukherjee to be the scene-stealer and added, "Oozing oomph from every pore, she [..] proves herself an actress whose time has come." Kuch Kuch Hota Hai proved a breakthrough for Mukherjee; it emerged as a blockbuster in India and abroad with earnings of over 
1.03 billion (US$17 million), and won eight Filmfare Awards, including a Best Supporting Actress trophy for Mukherjee.
1.03 billion (US$17 million), and won eight Filmfare Awards, including a Best Supporting Actress trophy for Mukherjee.
Following the success of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Mukherjee played leading roles in the social drama Mehndi (1998) and the comedy Hello Brother (1999). Both these films were critical and commercial disappointments which failed to propel her career forward.
Born: March 21, 1978 (age 36), Mumbai, India
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