Kangana Ranaut

Kangna Amardeep Ranaut (born 23 March 1987) is an Indian actress and filmmaker who works primarily in Hindi films.

Known for her portrayals of strong-willed, unconventional women in female-led films, she is the recipient of several awards, including four National Film Awards and five Filmfare Awards, and has featured six times in Forbes India Celebrity 100 list.

Kangna Amardeep 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 Chandel, who 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 (mansion) in Bhambla, and described her childhood as "simple and happy".

According to Ranaut, 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 did not subscribe to the stereotypes that were expected of her and experimented with fashion from a young age, often pairing up accessories and clothes that would seem "bizarre" to her neighbours.

Ranaut was educated at the DAV School in Chandigarh, where she pursued science as her core subject, remarking that she was "very studious" and "always paranoid about [...] results".

She initially intended to become a doctor on the insistence of her parents.

However, a failed unit test in chemistry during her twelfth grade led Ranaut to reconsider her career prospects and despite preparing for the All India Pre Medical Test, she did not turn up for the exam.

Determined to find her "space and freedom", she relocated to Delhi at the age of sixteen.

Her decision not to pursue medicine led to constant feuding with her parents and her father refused to sponsor a pursuit he considered to be aimless.

In Delhi, Ranaut was unsure which career 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 decided to shift focus towards acting and joined the Asmita Theatre Group, where she trained under the theatre director Arvind Gaur.

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 performance, when one of the male actors went missing, Ranaut played his 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 in Asha Chandra's drama school.

Ranaut struggled with her meager earnings during this period, eating only "bread and aachar (pickle)".

Refusing her father's financial assistance led to a rift in their relationship which she later regretted.

Her relatives were unhappy with her decision to enter the film-making industry, and they did not correspond with her for several years.

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, an agent took her to the office of the producer Mahesh Bhatt, where she interacted with the director Anurag Basu and auditioned for the lead role in the romantic thriller Gangster: A Love Story.

She made her film debut in the 2006 thriller Gangster, for which she was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, and 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.

She reconciled with them after the release of Life in a... Metro in 2007.

She appeared in the commercially successful films Raaz: The Mystery Continues (2009) and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010) but was criticised for being typecast in neurotic roles.

A comic role in Tanu Weds Manu (2011) was well-received, though this was followed by a series of brief, glamorous roles in films that failed to propel her career forward.

Ranaut's career prospects improved in 2013 when she played a mutant in the superhero film Krrish 3, one of the highest-grossing Indian films.

She went on to win two consecutive National Film Awards for Best Actress for playing an abandoned bride in the comedy-drama Queen (2014) and a dual role in the comedy sequel Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015), which was the biggest-earning female-led Hindi film at the time.

This was followed by several commercial failures and a decline in stardom.

Her sole successful venture in this period was her co-directorial venture, the biopic Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi (2019).

In 2020, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri, the country's fourth-highest civilian award.

At the age of sixteen, Ranaut briefly took up modelling before being trained under theatre director Arvind Gaur.

Her portrayal of the titular warrior in it and her part as a sportswoman in Panga (2020) jointly earned her a fourth National Film Award.

In 2020, Ranaut launched her own production company, Manikarnika Films, where she works as a director and a producer.

She has been credited in the media as being one of the best-dressed celebrities, and is known to be outspoken.

The opinions she has voiced, aligning with right-wing ideologies, along with frequent clashes in her personal and professional relationships, have sparked controversy.