Rani Mukerji

Rani Mukherjee is an Indian film actress and is considered as one of the most successful and high profile actresses in Bollywood. She made her Bollywood debut in 1996 with the movie Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat. Later on in her career, Rani has movies like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Ghulam and many more to her credits. Rani Mukherjee in her career has been a recipient of several awards and she has won the Filmfare Awards seven times. A very popular actress of India, she has been the brand ambassadors of many brands in her career. Her distinctive voice gave her a unique personality among the Indian actresses and her roles in the movies are cited as a significant departure from the traditional portrayal of women in Bollywood. She has been a supporter of multiple causes and charities and has been vocal about the issues related to women and children.

Born on 21^st March 1978 in Mumbai, Rani was born to the Mukherjee-Samarth family and his parents Ram Mukherjee and Krishna Mukherjee were both working in the entertainment industry and Rani was born in a family who has been involved in the entertainment media. Her father Ram Mukherjee is a former film director and also one of the founders of the Filmaya studios and her mother Krishna Mukherjee is a former playback singer. She has an elder brother Raja Mukherjee who is a film producer and director, whereas her maternal aunt Debarshee Roy is a Bengali film actress and her parental cousins Kajol and Ayan Mukerji have been in working in the industry as an actress and scriptwriter, film director respectively. She completed her schooling from the Maneckji Cooper High School and later graduated from SNDT Women’s University with a degree in Home Science. From a very young age, she also began to learn the Orissa dance form and she also trained at Roshan Tanjeja’s acting institute prior joining Bollywood. In 1994, Rani was offered a lead role in Salim Khan’s directorial debut Aa Gale Lag Jaa but her father disapproved her to work as a full time actress as she was very young. The next year, she stepped into acting after doing a cameo role in a Bengali film Biyar Phool, directed by her father. She made her debut in Bollywood in the year 1998 and was signed for the lead role in Salim Khan’s social drama film Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat. Her role in the movie was of a protagonist and she played the role of a rape victim who was forced to marry her rapist. Despite the movie wasn’t commercially successful, her performance in the move received critical acclamations and she also received a special recognition award at the annual Screen awards ceremony. In 1998, she tasted her first commercial success in Vikram Bhatt’s Ghulam and she starred opposite Aamir Khan. The song”Aati Kya Khandala” in the movie was a massive hit and it helped herin gaining popularity among the masses. In the same year, she appeared in Karan Johar’s directorial debut movie Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and she shared the screen with actors like Shah Rukh Khan and her cousin Kajol. She portrayed the role titled Tina Malhotra and received appreciation for her role in the movie. the movie was a blockbuster and it had a box office collection of over 1.03 billion rupees and it won eight Filmfare awards and Rani won her first Filmfare award in the Best Supporting Actress category. Despote after two consecutive hit films, Rani didn’t had a good start in 1999 and her films Mehndi and Hello brother didn’t do well and created critical as well as commercial disappointments. Her careeer struggle continued in the year 2000 where she appeared in movies lie Badal, Bichoo, Kahin Pyaar Na Ho Jaaye, Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega but all her films proved to be average and gher career struggle continued. Her disappointment in films continued in the year 2001 as her movies Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, Bas Itna Sa Khwaab Hai and Nayak : The Real Heero failed in the bo office collections. After being unsuccessful for three years, Rani made her comeback with the 2002 release Mujhse Dosti Karoge! was a moderate successful movie. Her next release Saathiya costarring with Vivek Oberoi proved a turning point in her career and her role in the movie helped her in winning the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress and she also got her nomination in the Best Actress category. Her next release Chalte Chalte opposite Shah Rukh Khan received critical praises as well as performed well at the box office and she received her second best actress nomination at the Filmfare awards. Her next few releases which include movies like Chori Chori, Calcutta Mail and LOC Kargil were moderately successful. She started to gain more success from the year 2004. Her role in Mani Ratnam’s 2004 release Yuva received great successes which lead to Rani Mukherjee winning the Best Actress as well as Best Supporting Actress award in the same year. She is the only actress to do so. Later in the same year, she was casted in Kunal Kohli’s Hum Tum opposite Saif Ali Khan and the movie was one of the biggest successful movies of the year.  in the same year, she was casted alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Preity Zinta in the movie Veer Zaara and the movie emerged as one of the highest grossing film of the year. For her role in the movie, she won the Best Supporting Actress at the IIFA Awards. In 2005, Rani Mukherjee gave one of her best performance in the movie Black opposite Amitabh Bachchan and her role of a blind and deaf girl received huge appreciations and critical acclamations. The movie won two national films awards and she became the only actress to win the Best actress as well as Best Actress- critics trophies at the Filmfare award ceremony. Her other releases in the year included movies like Bunty aur Babli, Paheli and Mangal Pandey: The Rising and all the movies received commercial success. She then worked in the movie Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna for which she received her consecutive third IIFA Best Actress Award. However, her success in films began to decline and later she worked in movies like Baabul, Ta Ra Rum Pum, Saawariya, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, Dil Bole Hadippa. Later from 2010, she started to gain appreciation after she began to act in thrillers and her successful movies include No One Killed Jessica, Aiyaa, Bombay Talkies and Mardaani were both commercially and critically successful.

On 21^st April 2014, she married Aditya Chopra in Italy. He is a film director, producer, screenwriter, broadcast producer and distributor.