Rani Mukerji: “Actors of my generation and before my generation were not given choices, we were not spoiled”
“I’m more private than my husband, nobody knows that” - says Rani Mukerji as she opens up about her personal life and husband-filmmaker Aditya Chopra
“I’m hungry as an actor and I want to challenge myself” - Rani Mukerji on her love for acting and working in the industry for almost 27 years
She always had star power, even when she started out in showbiz during her teenage years and today almost 27 years later, we continue to witness her shine on and off the silver screen. Rani Mukerji has been Bollywood’s best for decades, all credit to her talent, unique connection with fans and metier. Right from ‘Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat’, ‘Ghulam’ ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ ‘Hum Tum’, ‘Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna’, ‘Black’, to ‘No One Killed Jessica’, ‘Talaash’, ‘Mardaani’ 1&2 and ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’ - her body of work speaks volumes about her calibre as an actor. She can be all of these characters when you watch her perform and yet remain the affable, humanitarian Rani Mukerji who’s also a loving wife and mother at her home.
As she glows in the warmth of love and a deep sense of self-security, the actress chats with Film Companion’s Anupama Chopra about her journey as an actor in the last 27 years, her gratitude towards the audiences, husband and filmmaker Aditya Chopra, Mardaani 3 and much more. Excerpts below.
Opening up about her personal life and building a happy nest with husband Aditya Chopra, and why they love staying at home, Rani told, “I’m more private than my husband, nobody knows that. He’s much more outgoing than me. He’s just not outgoing with film people, but he’s quite outgoing. I chose right because I wanted to choose a person who’s not outgoing - outgoing, so I’m happy at home, he’s happy at home, we both are happy at home. It would be really difficult if I had a husband who would say ‘Hey let’s go partying’ and I would be like ‘Really?!’. He doesn’t force me to go anywhere, I don’t force him to go anywhere and we are so happy being at home.”
Rani Mukerji was then asked to share if there are any challenges that actors face while lip-syncing as today many new-age actors find it difficult to do. Expressing her views on the same, she said, “There’s no challenge in lip-syncing. I could be sleeping and music would be on and I could just start lip-syncing in my sleep. I think actors of my generation and actors before my generation, were not given choices, we were not spoiled. We have to support our family, we have to do well and we have no other choice but to do well. We have no other option, we have to give it our best. We have to work hard. There was no like we can get a second chance. Our fans forgave us a lot that time, now I know why fans are so unforgiving because they’re like ‘Abhi Sab Kuch hai toh karo na hard work.’ That time they knew that we were working so hard, so they forgave us. If we looked bad in a film, they didn’t really come down upon us.”
Looking at her journey as an actor over the years, the star spoke about why she believes her characters should be different from Rani Mukerji the person. She said, “I’m hungry as an actor and I want to challenge myself. To be very honest, I feel my fans have kept me going. When I didn’t want to be an actor, the way my fans received me and the encouragement they gave me through the years, that has pushed me to push boundaries in my work. I can’t be content as an actor because a true actor can’t be content. You’ve to keep doing stuff that challenges you. I will be bored if I’ve to sleepwalk in a film because it’s easy for me. I have to do something which I should be nervous going on set for. I should be nervous to believe that how do I play this character and I can’t get Rani Mukerji in the part. I have to be this character so if I have to be Debika Chatterjee (her character from ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’), I have to be her. I can’t be me in my roles otherwise what is the point of me acting out a character. It’s not different aspects of Rani, it’s different characters that Rani plays. I like my characters to speak their own language, and walk differently and I need them to have a different body language. So when an audience watches me in the theatre, De forget who I am because they are seeing the character because they need to connect with the emotions of the character. They can’t feel all this is ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ Wali Rani.”
Lastly, Rani Mukerji finally gave some updates on the long-awaited sequel of ‘Mardaani 2’ and revealed if ‘Mardaani 3’ is on the cards. The actress revealed, “I’m crossing my fingers because I would love to play the part of Shivani. When I did ‘Mardaani 2’, I was quite nervous because I had never done a sequel before. It’s because I leave my characters behind each time a film gets over and then I don’t know if I will be able to reprise that part again. With ‘Mardaani 2’, I was surprised that I enjoyed reprising the part so now I want to reprise it again in ‘Mardaani 3’. I will be very happy and excited if the ‘Mardaani 3’ script comes about and we would make the film. I as an actor always believe that we don’t want to do a film just because it sounds good, we need to make a film when the script is good and we want to make a film that makes a difference. With ‘Mardaani 3’, we can’t make a film if the story does not have that substance. It has to be something that people relate with today and girls find it empowering, only then we can do ‘Mardaani 3’. We can’t do it just because it sounds exciting. I am hoping that if they can crack a real good script, I would just get on with it.”
Meanwhile, on the work front, Rani Mukerji was last seen in the critically acclaimed film ‘Mrs Chatterjee vs Norway’.
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