"People in the industry treated me like I didn't deserve to be spoken to and I was some unwanted object. I couldn't speak English fluently and people made fun of me for that. So dealing with rejection became a part of life. ... All that has taken a toll, I guess. I find it hard to deal with praise. Today, when people say that I have made it and made it on my own, I feel like locking up myself somewhere ... It scares me."
After a year-long absence from the screen, Ranaut starred as Julia, a 1940s heroine and stunt-woman in Vishal Bhardwaj's epic romance Rangoon (2017), opposite Saif Ali Khan and Shahid Kapoor. Although her role was speculated to be based on the Actress Fearless Nadia, Ranaut believed it to be an "amalgamation of many characters" from that era, and was particularly drawn towards the "fierceness and sensuality" she found in the part. In preparation, she learned horse-riding and sword fighting and performed her own Stunts. The media reported extensively of a feud between Ranaut and Kapoor during filming, and although they denied the reports, both stars publicly commented against the other. Rangoon received mixed reviews but Ranaut's performance was picked up for praise; in a typical review, Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times labelled Ranaut as "terrific", believing that the "poor script never lets Julia reach her pinnacle but [Ranaut] steals the show even with small scenes". The film failed to find a wide audience at the box office.
Ranaut was born on 23 March 1987 at Bhambla (now Surajpur), a small town in the Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh, into a Rajput family. Her mother, Asha Ranaut, is a school Teacher, and her father, Amardeep Ranaut, is a businessman. She has an elder sister, Rangoli, who as of 2014 works as her manager and a younger brother, Akshat. Her great-grandfather, Sarju Singh Ranaut, was a Member of the Legislative Assembly and her grandfather was an officer for the Indian Administrative Service. She grew up in a joint family at their ancestral haveli (mansion) in Bhambla, and described her childhood as "simple and happy".
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 following year, an agent took her to the office of the Producer Mahesh Bhatt, where she interacted with the Director Anurag Basu and auditioned for the lead role in the romantic thriller Gangster. Bhatt felt that she was too young for the role and signed Chitrangada Singh instead. However, Singh was later unavailable to do the film and Ranaut was contracted as a replacement for Gangster, opting out of I Love You Boss. She was cast in the central role of Simran, an alcoholic woman caught in a romantic triangle between a notorious gangster (played by Shiney Ahuja) and a sympathetic friend (played by Emraan Hashmi). Ranaut was only seventeen while filming and said that she "had difficulty first in understanding and then unwinding from the character", describing her craft as "raw and immature". Released in 2006, Gangster emerged as a critical and commercial success and her performance was praised. Raja Sen of Rediff.com said that "Kangana is a remarkable find, the Actress coming across with great conviction. Hers is the pivotal character and an extremely difficult role to essay, but she manages it well [...] Kangana's nuances [of an alcoholic character] are disconcertingly realistic." She won the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut, along with various other debut awards.
Ranaut lives in Mumbai with her sister Rangoli, who was the victim of an acid attack in 2006. She makes yearly visits to her hometown of Bhambla. A practicing Hindu, Ranaut follows the teachings of the spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda and considers meditation to be "the highest form of worshipping God". She practices vegetarianism and was listed as "India's hottest vegetarian" in a poll conducted by PETA in 2013. Since 2009 Ranaut has been studying the dance form of kathak from the Nateshwar Nritya Kala Mandir. She has said that the technical process of filmmaking is of tremendous interest to her, and to better her understanding of it Ranaut enrolled in a two-month screenplay writing course at the New York Film Academy in 2014. In an interview with Filmfare she said that despite her stardom, she wants to lead a normal life: "I don't want to lose my rights as a Common person to learn and grow".
During the struggle, Ranaut found support in the actor Aditya Pancholi and his wife Zarina Wahab and considered them her "family away from home". She became embroiled in a well publicised scandal when the media speculated on the nature of her relationship with Pancholi. She declined to speak about it openly, although she made several public appearances with him. In 2007 it was reported that Ranaut had filed a police complaint against Pancholi for physically assaulting her under the influence of alcohol. The following year Pancholi confirmed the affair in an interview, saying that he had been cohabiting with Ranaut in the past and accused her of owing him ₹2.5 million (US$38,000). In response, Ranaut's spokesperson said that "after physically assaulting her in the middle of a road, he has no right to expect anything from her", adding that she had "already given ₹5 million (US$77,000) to [him] as a goodwill gesture". Ranaut later said that the incident had left her "physically and mentally" damaged.
Ranaut has been the recipient of three National Film Awards: Best Supporting Actress for Fashion (2008) and Best Actress for Queen (2014) and Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015). She has also won four Filmfare Awards: Best Female Debut for Gangster (2006), Best Supporting Actress for Fashion (2008), Best Actress for Queen (2014), and Best Actress - Critics for Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015).
The supernatural horror film Raaz: The Mystery Continues from Director Mohit Suri was Ranaut's first film release of 2009, in which she played a successful model who is possessed by a ghost. The film co-starred Emraan Hashmi and Adhyayan Suman and proved to be a financial success. Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express noted that Ranaut was becoming stereotyped in roles that required her to be "hysterical", adding that she needed a "radical change of image". Also that year, she played the leading lady in the drama Vaada Raha and the Telugu action film Ek Niranjan, neither of which were particularly notable.
Ranaut is considered a sex symbol and a style icon in India. Analysing Ranaut's off-screen persona, Hindustan Times published that she was initially written off by Indian journalists due to her "funny accent" and the negative publicity generated by her troubled relationships; however, her defining fashion choices and her unconventional film roles eventually established her as a star. Ranaut has frequently featured in listings of the most attractive and stylish celebrities in India. She ranked among the top 10 on The Times of India's listing of the "Most Desirable Woman" in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2015. Ranaut was featured on Verve's listing of the most powerful women of 2010 and in 2012 she was named the "Best Dressed Personality" by the Indian edition of People magazine. In 2013, Ranaut featured as one of the best-dressed women celebrities by Vogue India. The Journalist Jagmeeta Thind Joy credits the Actress for her "quirky, almost non-Bollywood take on personal style", adding that she "likes to shock and awe with her choices". She has collaborated with the fashion brand Vero Moda to launch two clothing lines for the company, named Marquee and Venice Cruise, in 2015 and 2016, respectively.
Ranaut followed the success of Tanu Weds Manu by starring in a series of brief, glamorous roles in four other films of 2011: Game, Double Dhamaal, Rascals and Miley Naa Miley Hum. With the exception of Double Dhamaal, none of these films performed well. In a review for Rascals, the critic Gaurav Malani wrote: "Kangana Ranaut is ill at ease in comedy. She struggles to hold her own and emerges as a bimbo in her act." Ranaut later said that she did some of these films due to a dearth of film offers. The following year, Ranaut portrayed a supporting role opposite Ajay Devgn in Priyadarshan's action thriller Tezz, another box office flop.
Analysing Ranaut's career, the Journalist Parmita Uniyal, in 2014, noted that she "loves to challenge herself with Tricky roles and manages to add a different dimension to her character every time." A reviewer for Rediff.com described her as a "director's actress" who is susceptible to both "shine and crumble under the right/wrong guidance". Anand L Rai (the Director of Tanu Weds Manu) says that Ranaut actively pursues roles in which she can "work in her own space and not become a mere prop in the male-dominated Bollywood". Alongside Actress Vidya Balan, Ranaut has been credited for spearheading a movement that breaks stereotypes of a Hindi film heroine by playing the protagonist in films not starring a well-known male star. Following the success of Queen and Tanu Weds Manu Returns, Deccan Chronicle labelled her as "one of the most bankable actresses in the industry", and Daily News and Analysis reported that she had emerged as one of the highest-paid actresses in Bollywood.
Also in 2015, Ranaut appeared in the romantic comedies I Love NY (a production delayed since 2013) and Nikhil Advani's Katti Batti, both of which failed at the box office. The latter saw her play opposite Imran Khan as a cancer patient, a role that critic Uday Bhatia of Mint thought "lack[ed] the sort of definition she’s had in her last few roles".
Later in 2017, Ranaut starred in Simran, a crime comedy from the Director Hansal Mehta, in which she played a Gujarati immigrant in America involved in Criminal activities. She shared the screenwriting credit with Apurva Asrani for improvising several dialogues on set, but Asrani commented against Ranaut and Mehta for not valuing his contributions to the script. Once again, the film received mixed reviews and failed commercially.
As of 2018, Ranaut will star in Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi, a biopic on Rani of Jhansi, helmed by the Director Krish. She will also reunite with Rajkummar Rao for the comic thriller Mental Hai Kya. In addition, Ranaut will be making her feature film directorial debut with the comedy-drama Teju, in which she will also play the titular role of an octogenarian.
