Kangana Ranaut courts success and scandal as she scales newer career highs with Raaz 2, Kites and a Hollywood project
To be 21 and successful is certainly not easy. But cool Kangana does a pretty job of handling both with grace and dignity. She’s been busy shooting for Raaz 2 at Film City, “Like Gangster, Raaz 2 also requires 90 to 100 days from me. I wake up at 4 am, do my yoga and meditation and then report for the shoot at 7 am. I wind up by nine or ten. So I am working quite hard. I am sleeping for 3-4 hours,” she elaborates as she joins her co-star Adhyayan Suman for an intense tear-jerking scene. Director Mohit Suri is happy in the first take and the shot is okayed.
Back in her vanity van, Kangana talks about the thick eyebrows and longer mane that she sports in the film. “For the first time I wear lipstick too,” reveals the four-film old. After Gangster and Woh Lamhe... with Vishesh Films she had moved ahead with Suneel Darshan’s Shakalaka Boom Boom and then to UTV’s Life In A ...Metro. With Raaz 2, it’s the return of the prodigal, but she says dismissively that “I was never gone” and she feels that she’s back home as she knows “everybody from the spot dada to the director” who have seen her grow as an actor and person and they are pleasantly surprised to see that she “hasn’t changed at all”. Raaz 2, by no means is a peace-making effort, she declares with a laugh. “I agreed to do it because of its strong screenplay and it’s phenomenally talented director Mohit. I heard about 50 scripts and signed none but when I heard Raaz 2, I wanted to do it right away,” she adds excitedly. A role of a lifetime, she calls it and she says she’s worried that she will have to look for some other career strategy after Raaz 2. “It is the extreme of my capacity as a performer,” she sighs.
Being a part of this supernatural thriller, does she believe in spirits? “I am a very spiritual person. I believe in God, I believe in aatma and I look at people not as matter but in energy form. So I do believe in supernatural powers,” she re-iterates.
Why is she so hell-bent on being the next Meena Kumari? At 21, surely she is entitled to having more fun on-screen. Taking a deep breath, she gets into an analytical mode, “I will have to go for a comedy, which will be very difficult for me because I am a dark person. It is fun to portray emotions that are complex, I feel differently about pain. I am not scared of pain,” she emphasises.
Acting never figured in her scheme of things back home since they don’t even have a theatre there. “I wanted to be a doctor. I was in a hostel in Shimla struggling hard to clear the medical entrance exam. I was deeply disappointed when I failed to do that,” she says nostalgically. “That’s when I started thinking about what I really wanted to do and people suggested that I could be a model with my height and form.” Excited at the prospect of modelling she moved to Delhi and joined Elite, the French modelling agency. She even dabbled in local theatre. “I had big dreams about theatre - maybe one day I will achieve that too,” she muses.
When she moved to Mumbai after a year-long stint at modelling, Anurag Basu “saw” her, “Then Gangster happened,” she declares happily.
Just 18 and all of a sudden she was on the film set, feeling absolutely at home, “As if I were born here,” she says. Woh Lamhe... followed and then came Shakalaka Boom Boom, her first “flop”. “I am what I am today because of Shakalaka...my only film that didn’t work well taught me the most. I had taken good scripts, directors and co-stars for granted, but when this film bombed I woke up with a start. It’s important to face failure,” she states philosophically.
Back on track with her mentor Basu, she delivered yet another sensitive portrayal in ...Metro. “We are lucky for each other,” she notes happily. As for working with him again and that too opposite Hrithik Roshan in Kites, Kangana is definitely “very excited”. She has met Hrithik and finds him “the nicest person” she’s ever met. He complimented her about her work and ensured her of the comfort level they will share while shooting in New Mexico, where the film takes off by the end of this month. She plays the role of young Gina and all the characters in the film are US-based. “It is a very interesting role for me - more on the skin than in eyes,” she lets on.
She admits to being a Hrithik fan, “I was in the 8th standard when his Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai released and I would urge my friends and neighbours to come and watch the film - only because I wanted to watch it again and again,” she smiles.
Kangana has been busy shooting for Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion alongside Priyanka Chopra and Mugdha Godse. Incredibly there are no reports of catfights from this set and to top it Priyanka has been giving her some “sound career advice” too! She laughs and says, “It depends on what kind of a person you are, I live in my shell and am too occupied with my own thoughts,” she says. But she was amazed at Priyanka for going out of her way to make friends with her inspite of being “such a big star and a senior actor. Just proves that good girls exist,” she remarks light-heartedly.
She will be seen in the Tamil film Dhaam Dhoom and then in the Hollywood project Between The Night And The Moon directed by Italian filmmaker Gilda Pianelli. About skimming the breadth of cinema from regional to international, she admits gratefully, “I am at the receiving end with casting agencies and directors opting for me. I hope there are proper casting agencies in future so that another Kangana doesn’t have to wait for a whole year to get a good break.”
It’s only work and no play for Kangana right now because she says,” I am in love with my job, I am obsessed with my work. I cannot think beyond my characters. My sister sometimes tells me that even in my sleep I start saying my dialogues. I have come to a stage when I cannot think beyond movies and I want to be on the sets. I am an obsessive person right from my school days - there is nothing in-between for me. I am an extreme person,” she goes on.
She feels Madhuri Dixit was Madhuri because of her smile, Sridevi was Sridevi because of her eyes and Kangana is Kangana because of her hair and stitch mark on the lips. “Imperfection makes me what I am,” she smiles.
About romance and commitment in life she says,“I will get married and have kids someday but my work will remain my priority. As of now the family part is dead in me, I only get turned on by brilliant work by co-actors or directors,” she says firmly pushing aside the past ugly liaison with Aditya Pancholi as a “mistake”, as she is set to race ahead with her career.
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