Kangana Ranaut

Biography

Kangana was born on 23 March 1987 in Bhambla, near Manali, which is in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh. Her dad Amardeep is a businessman and her mom Asha is a schoolteacher. 

She has two sisters and a younger brother. Her grandfather was an IAS Office. She spent her childhood in Dehra Dun and studied in DAV's High School, where she participated in many debates and elocutions and also played basketball.

After completing her schooling, she attended Science College in Simla. She was enrolled in the Elite School of Modeling and also tried theater acting in Delhi and was a member of the Smita Theater Group under Arvind Gaur. She is also a trained Kathak dancer.

She decided to relocate to Bombay and lived in a flat on Yari Road, Versova. In September 2005 she was spotted drinking coffee in a cafe by filmmaker Anurag Basu, who approached her and eventually signed her for a lead role in Gangster (2006).

Since then, Kangana Ranaut has won 4 National Awards for her performance in _Fashion (2008)_qv, _Queen (2014)_qv, and _Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015)_qv. Manikarnika(2019) Panga (2019).

Kangana co-wrote her own dialogues in Queen (2014). She told director Vikas Bahl that she wanted to do the character in her own way and she improvised her lines during filming. This film brought her unanimous critical acclaim for her acting skills. She won the Best Actress award at almost every award ceremony including Filmfare and National Awards.

In the film Queen (2014), she wore an Alice in Wonderland sweatshirt on her last day in Amsterdam. This is a tribute to the book on which the movie is loosely based.

Reportedly, She was paid a whopping 110 million rupees for Rangoon (2017). This is the highest payment ever made to a Bollywood actress for a film.

To prepare for her role as Datto in Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015), she used to roam around the campus of Delhi University in the same get-up, and students around were not aware.

Kangana started out as a theatre actor in Delhi with the Asmita Theatre Group. She worked with director Arvind Gaur at IHC (India Habitat Centre). Her first play was Girish Karnad's Taledanda (Rakt Kalyan).

Her father is a businessman and her mother is a schoolteacher.

During the early years of her career, Kangana's family didn't support her choice to act and she was once thrown out of her home with no money.

Kangana Ranaut is one of the youngest actresses to win the prestigious National Film Awards at the age of 22. She won Best Supporting Actress Award for Fashion (2008).

Wanted to be a doctor before starting a career in showbiz.

She was listed as "India's hottest vegetarian" by PETA in 2013.

As of 2017, She is the recipient of a total of 3 National awards. One for Best Supporting Actress for Fashion (2008) and two for Best Actress for Queen (2014) and Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015).

She is one of the only three actresses who won the National Award for Best Actress consecutively. She won the award in two consecutive years 2015 and 2016, for Queen (2014) and Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015) respectively. The other two actresses are Shabana Azmi (who won for 3 consecutive years actually) and Archana.

Anurag Basu spotted Kangana having coffee at a cafe back in September 2005. He got so impressed with her, that he eventually signed her for a lead role in his film Gangster (2006).

She is a trained Kathak Dancer.

She is one of the seven actresses who has won a National Award for Best Actress more than once. As of 2017, She has won Queen (2014) and Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015). The other six actresses are Shabana Azmi, Sharada, Smita Patil, Archana, Shobana, and Tabu.

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 film got shelved.

Starred in the shelved movie "I Love You Boss" (2005), which was to star Shatrughan Sinha, Kangana Ranaut, get produced by Pahlaj Nihalani and directed by Deepak Shivdasani.

Came in #3 in BollySpice.com Magazine's list of "Top 10 Actresses of 2006". (January 2007).