Rani Mukerji

Rani Mukerji is an Indian actress who primarily performs in Hindi films. She is known for her good acting and cheerful nature. She has won several honours over time, including the seven Filmfare Awards. With this, Mukerji has established her place in the list of great actresses of the 2000s. She was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, on March 21, 1978. She was raised by the late Shri Ram Mukherjee, her father and a respected film producer, and her mother, Krishna Mukherjee, a well-known playback vocalist. A spot in the Bollywood industry was already secured for her family or future generations. But, she had no actual desire to pursue performing as a profession. She is also a talented Odissi dancer and enjoys dancing whenever she gets a chance.

About Rani Mukerji

Rani Mukerji was raised in the Mukherjee-Samarth clan, and while her friends and grandparents were part of the Indian film business, she had no desire to work in the profession. She experimented with acting as a teenager, appearing in the dramas "Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat" and the Bengali-language picture "Biyer Phool" (both in 1996) directed by her father. After her first box office hit with the action film "Ghulam" (1998), Mukherjee got the turning point of her life with the love story film "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" (1998). After a temporary setback, she had a major shift in 2002 when Yash Raj Films chose her to feature in the drama "Saathiya".

Between 2007 and 2010, Mukherjee worked with Yash Raj Films and starred in several unsuccessful films, leading to critics lamenting her chosen characters. This changed when she performed as a strong and bold journalist in the thriller "No One Killed Jessica" in 2011. She then went on to star in the action movies named Talaash (2012), Mardaani (2014) and its follow-up Mardaani 2 (2019), as well as the comedy-drama Hichki (2018), which brought her more success.

Mukerji has participated in many stage performances, concert tours, and talent shows. In 2009, she served as a judge in the "Dance Premier League" reality competition. Mukherjee has a daughter with her husband, film producer/director Aditya Chopra. Mukherjee has also been associated with humanitarian causes and speaks out against problems affecting women and children.

Early Life

Rani Mukerji was born on 21 March 1978 in Bombay. Mukerji attended "Maneckji Cooper Middle School" in Juhu and then graduated from SNDT Women's University with a degree in home science. She has had an experience with the Odissi dance style since she was in the ninth standard. Mukerji wasn't interested in working in cinema even though her parents and the majority of her family worked in the Indian film industry.

Ram Mukherjee, her father and a senior member of the Mukherjee-Samarth family, was one of the developers of Filmalaya Studios and a former filmmaker. Retired playback vocalist Krishna Mukherjee is her mother. Raja Mukherjee, her older brother, is a writer and director of Motion Pictures. Her paternal cousin and contemporary, Kajol, is a Hindi film actress, while her mother's cousin, Debashree Roy, is a Bengali cinema actress. Ayan Mukerji, a different ancestral cousin, is a screenwriter and filmmaker.

At 18, Mukerji took prominent parts in the social play "Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat" on her mother's advice, encouraging her to try acting. Roshan Taneja's acting school provided Mukerji with her training. In the movie, she played a rape victim who was forced to wed her rapist. Even though the movie didn't perform well financially, Mukerji's performance was recognized and praised. Also, she received a special award at the yearly Screen Awards event.

Mukerji went back to college to finish her study after the movie had a terrible box office performance. After her studies, she decided to work in films again, inspired by her cousin Kajol's success in Bollywood. The Mukerji family celebrates the Durga Puja holiday every year in the suburban community of Santacruz as part of a long-standing tradition. Mukerji's entire family attends the festivities.

Career

Breakthrough and Initial Struggle (1998-2001)

Mukerji's first commercial triumph was her performance in the action movie "Ghulam", directed by Vikram Bhatt, alongside Aamir Khan in 1998. Despite having a little part in the movie "Aati Kya Khandala", she gained popularity. Due to Mukerji's husky voice, Bhatt had someone with a high-pitched voice to dub her lines; Mukerji later said that this was done because her voice did not suit the characters.

By 2000, Mukerji had decided to do more difficult parts in contrast to the stereotypical attractive lead to avoid being stereotyped as a "standard Hindi cinema heroine". She played roles in the action movies "Badal" and "Bichhoo" (both of which starred Bobby Deol) and received scant praise from reviewers. Mukerji's 2001 debut, Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, was eventually released after a brief delay due to controversies about the film's sponsorship by the Mumbai mafia. He worked with Salman Khan and Preity Zinta in this surrogacy-themed film. Sukanya Verma, a film reviewer, thought Zinta's performance to be "meatier" and felt that Mukerji was handicapped with a character that could not give her much space in a film.

Established actress (2002-2006)

In 2002, Mukerji started working with Yash Raj Films when they hired her for two projects, "Mujhse Dosti karoge" and "Saathiya". The most prosperous phase of Mukerji's career began in the year 2003. She took Aishwarya Rai's position and worked with Shah Rukh Khan in Aziz Mirza's love story "Chalte Chalte". Later, Shah Rukh Khan stated that Mukerji was already the initial choice for the character, despite media allegations that Rai was replaced due to a fight with Salman Khan on the film sets. Mukerji believed that the theme of "Chalte Chalte" that dealt with a misunderstanding between a married couple, was similar to that of the movie Saathiya. So, she tried to lend variety to the role by putting them (movies) against a different backgrounds.

Mukerji became the first actress to win both honours in the same year when she won the "Lead Actress" and "Most Supporting Actress" awards at the 50th National Film Awards. This triumph continued, and Yash Chopra chose her for his historical romance film Veer-Zaara (2004). It centres on the protagonist star-crossed couples against the backdrop of ties between India and Pakistan. Veer-Zaara, the highest-grossing Hindi film of the year with a global gross of ?940 million, was later screened at the Berlin International Film Festival.

According to an article in Outlook magazine from 2005, Mukerji has positioned herself as the most prominent heroine working in modern Hindi film. In Sanjay Leela Bhansali's film named "Black", about an alcoholic father who devotes his life to teaching a blind and deaf daughter how to talk, she had her debut film role that year opposite Amitabh Bachchan. Due to the "difficult" subject matter of the role, Mukerji was first reluctant to accept it. Bhansali intentionally wrote the character of the blind-deaf girl for Mukerji. Black was named the fifth-best movie of the year by Time's Richard Corliss after winning several prizes, particularly 2 National Film Awards & 11 Filmfare Awards. Mukerji's performance was praised as "remarkable" by Empire magazine and Filmfare, which listed her effort among the "80 Best Outstanding acts" in Indian film.

Mukerji declined an opportunity from Mira Nair to act in the English movie "The Namesake" in favour of reuniting with Karan Johar for the film "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna" (2006), which dealt with adultery. It was a great release and soon became the highest-grossing Hindi movie in foreign markets at the time after bringing in over 1.13 billion (US$15 million).

Professional setback (2007-2010)

After Baabul's box office flop, Yash Raj Films hired Mukerji to play the wife of a race car driver (played by Saif Ali Khan) in the Siddharth Anand-directed family drama "Ta Ra Rum Pum". Also, she had two kids in this movie. For the first time, she was eager to perform as a mother. The movie, released in 2007, was commercially successful but garnered conflicting reviews. The popularity of Mukerji started to decline by the close of 2007. According to Rediff.com and Hindustan Times, this resulted from her "boring and repetitive partnering" with the same group of performers, making it difficult for new directors to approach her.

After a string of tragic roles, Mukerji was looking for a humorous role, which she got in Kunal Kohli's children's movie "Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic" in 2008. This movie was about an angel who visits Earth to aid four unhappy children. Mukerji undertook a makeover and dropped weight to try to reverse this downturn. She kept working with Yash Raj Films, and opposite Shahid Kapoor, she played the lead in the love story "Dil Bole Hadippa!" in 2009. The movie, starring Mukerji as a cricket-obsessed Punjabi rural girl who poses as a male, had its global debut at the Toronto International Film Festival, and Mukerji had great hopes for it.

Recent Success (2011-present)

One of Mukerji's greatest performances to date was in the movie "No One Killed Jessica" (2011), according to Aniruddha Guha of Daily News and Information in 2012. Mukerji then agreed to play the lead role in the comedy film "Aiyyaa" (2012). She portrayed a character with an enhanced sense of smell, who also has a one-sided attraction to Prithviraj Sukumaran's character under the supervision of Sachin Kundalkar. A website, Rediff.com, questioned her choice to feature in the critically and financially disastrous movie, saying that she "receives no assistance from how her part is structured".

In 2013, Mukerji was featured in "Bombay Talkies", a collection of four short movies. She participated in the Johar-directed scene when she portrayed a news reporter who learns that her spouse (Randeep Hooda) is homosexual. In 2013, the movie was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Bombay Talkies received positive reviews despite its dismal box office result, notably for Johar's portion. Tushar Joshi from Daily Information and Commentary commended Mukerji's nuance in the role.

After giving birth to her daughter, Mukerji did take a four-year break from performing before being urged to do so by her spouse, Aditya Chopra. She was looking for a project to work on that would meet her responsibilities as a mom and found it in the humour film Hichki in 2018.

Marriage and Lifestyle

Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, and director Karan Johar are all friends of Mukerji and have worked together regularly. Despite her refusal to speak in public, Mukerji's connection with director Aditya Chopra was the subject of intense tabloid reportage in India. She wed Chopra in a secret wedding in Italy on April 21, 2014. In the subsequent season, she gave birth to a daughter. Adira Mukerji has stated that she thinks mothers must have careers and make good use of their free time after becoming parents.

In addition to her acting profession, Mukerji is actively involved with humanitarian causes and speaks out against problems affecting women and children. For her collaborative initiative, Shiksha, to support the cause of children's education, Procter & Gamble and the NGO of Child Rights and You (CRY), nominated Mukerji as a spokesperson. Mukerji had already worked with them while preparing for her part in Black. In March 2006, she spent her birth anniversary with the differently-abled kids of the Helen Keller Institute.

Net Worth

An Indian actress named Rani Mukerji has an over $12 million net worth. Rani Mukerji was forced by her mother to make her first special appearance in the year of 1996 Bengali movie "Biyer Phool" because she comes from a cinema-loving family of Bengali descent. Her acting career began with this film, and a year later, Mukerji received her debut role in a Hindu film when she played the lead character in "Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat".

Several musical tours and television award shows included Mukerji. In 1999, she embarked on her debut concert tour, "Magnificent Five," alongside actors Aamir Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Akshaye Khanna, and Twinkle Khanna. Mukerji performed in 19 stage performances worldwide for the "Temptations 2004" concert with SRK, Saif Ali Khan, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, and Priyanka Chopra.

In 2005, Mukerji took part in the "Temptations" event in New Delhi, which was organized to generate money for the NCPEDP (National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People). The event was attended by many other popular stars, including Shah Rukh, Fardeen Khan, Ameesha Patel, and Malaika Arora Khan.

Awards and Achievements

She received a Filmfare award for her outstanding performance or role in Karan Johar's romantic comedy "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai" (1998). She was honoured with her first Best picture Reviewers Award for Best Actress in 2002 for her outstanding performance in the play "Saathiya". Then, in 2004, she won the Best Actress and Lead Actress prizes at the 50th Filmfare Awards for their respective performances in the widely praised drama "Yuva" and the hugely successful romantic comedy "Hum Tum". For her stirring depiction of a blind, deaf, and dumb lady in the 2005 movie "Black", she continued the winning journey and added two further Filmfare Awards. His performances in the 2006 adolescent drama "Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna" and the 2005 humour "Bunty Aur Babli" (both blockbusters in India and abroad) added more awards to Mukerji's growing list.

Mukerji rose to the top of Hindi film acting due to her outstanding performances and roles. However, Mukerji's career had setbacks during a period when she performed several parts in critically and financially disastrous movies. But after portraying a fearless reporter in "No One Killed Jessica" (2011) as well as a distraught mother in "Talaash" (2012), she won the admiration of reviewers again. In addition to appearing in films, Mukerji served as a talent judge for Dance Premier League on Sony Entertainment Television in 2009. She keeps her personal life hidden from the public and promotes or shows herself only as a regular theatrical artist.