Kangana Ranaut has played a wide variety of roles in Hindi cinema since her debut in the 2006 film Gangster. Recently, she reflected on her career and spoke about how she was once known for playing edgy, neurotic characters and how her film choices today are markedly different.
'I was known as this edgy girl' Kangana said, 'You know, all the films have made such a strong impact and pushed me in different directions. Whether it was those very neurotic characters in Gangster (2006), Woh Lamhe (2006), Life in a... Metro (2007), Fashion (2008) —there was this series of neurotic roles, and I was known as this edgy girl who was temperamental, neurotic, hot, sexy, suicidal, all of that.'
She then transformed that image into the comedy, girl-next-door space with Queen (2013), Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Panga (2020), and others. Kangana shared that she began choosing more commanding and authoritative roles as she matured with age and advanced in her career.
'Then came a time when it was too much of the girl-next-door image, and I took on roles like Rani Lakshmibai, Jayalalithaa, and Indira Gandhi—leadership roles. And now there's a phase where I'm going into portraying the very basic woman, the unseen woman who blends into the background and whom nobody really pays attention to. So, this is the next phase.'
Kangana's recent films have been vastly different from one another. She played an International Task Force (ITF) agent in Dhaakad (2022), a fighter jet pilot in Tejas, and former Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi in Emergency. In her upcoming film, Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, she takes on the role of a nurse.
Bharat Bhagya Vidhata is based on the true events of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and focuses on the untold story of the bravery displayed by the medical and security staff at Cama and Albless Hospital, who safeguarded nearly 400 patients during the siege.
