You may hate her, you may envy her, you may adore her, but you just can’t ‘ignore’ her . Not because Kangana Ranaut is an international ‘style-icon’ who constantly innovates with her looks, her hair styles and her designer outfits. Not because the ‘Queen’ heroine gets dragged into a whirlpool of controversies. As her ‘Simran’ director Hansal Mehta puts it, “Kangana is a director’s delight, because she adds ‘josh, jaan aur junoon’ into her screen-roles. Which is evident in her sterling performance as the rebel, care-free, divorcee who speaks out her mind, in our realistic movie ‘Simran’. Whatever her detractors might say, she has been honoured with three National Awards.”
By a bizarre coincidence, Kangana’s character in her debut film ‘Gangster’ (2006) was also called ‘Simran’. “Since this circle is complete, destiny will now draw me into a larger circle,” quips Ranaut, who doesn’t feel she is an ‘outsider’ despite the invasion by rampant nepotism. “Actually, I feel I am an integral part of the film industry. Because my work has been recognized with prestigious awards, some of my heroine-centric films have broken box-office records and I have been hailed as the ‘leading face of Indian Cinema’,” she counters.
Was she demoralized when her big-budget ‘Rangoon’ movie cut a sorry figure at the box-office. “Being a very sensitive person, failures do affect me. But this ‘reality-check’ makes you a stronger person, since it is a learning experience,”responds Ranaut, who lip-syncs to ‘Manay Single Rehne De’ in ‘Simran’, but does not feel ‘lonely’ off-screen. “My family members and well-wishers, are there, whom I can always bank upon”.