Happy birthday Rani Mukerji: These 5 statements prove she is the real ‘Mardaani’ of Bollywood | Bollywood - Hindustan Times
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Happy birthday Rani Mukerji: These 5 statements prove she is the real ‘Mardaani’ of Bollywood

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByHT Correspondent
Mar 21, 2020 08:10 AM IST

On Rani Mukerji’s 42nd birthday, here is a look at her powerful statements that prove she is the really ‘Mardaani’ of Bollywood.

Whether it is the foul-mouthed Meera Gaity in No One Killed Jessica or the fierce Shivani Shivaji Roy in Mardaani and Mardaani 2, the characters played by Rani Mukerji on the big screen are far from damsels in distress. In real life, too, the actor does not believe in a knight in shining armour coming to her rescue. As she turns 42, here is why she is the real ‘Mardaani’ of Bollywood.

Rani Mukerji turns 42.
Rani Mukerji turns 42.

Just four months after her wedding with Yash Raj Films honcho Aditya Chopra in April 2014, Rani delivered the smash hit Mardaani, which was completely shouldered by her. She went on to take a sabbatical of almost four years to focus on motherhood, and made a successful comeback with Hichki in 2018.

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In an interview with IANS, Rani rubbished the notion that the career of leading ladies comes to a screeching halt after marriage. “I have always believed in letting my work do the talking and not pay heed to what the stereotypes said about actresses. Having been in the industry for a while now, I’m aware of loose conversations like a woman ceases to be a leading actor once she is married or how she can say bye to her career if she becomes a mother. It’s regressive thinking,” she said.

Rani rightly pointed out that successful women, particularly in the entertainment industry, do not have to make a choice between work and family. “I don’t know why this stigma has been attached to actresses that once we want to have a life of our own, we have to give up on our other love. Actors don’t get this. They have a successful career and parallelly lead their normal lives,” she told The Indian Express.

Also read | Rani Mukerji: ‘When you use cuss words, you release angst from your body and start looking beautiful’

In Rani’s marriage, there are no defined gender roles, and she gave the same advice to her Hum Tum co-star Saif Ali Khan when he got into a relationship with Kareena Kapoor Khan. On What Women Want, Saif told Kareena, “I remember Rani Mukerji told me once when we had just started dating... you and I. Because I don’t think I had ever been out with a working actress before, she said: ‘Just behave like you are in a relationship with a man.’ I know what she meant. She meant, ‘Don’t get into the gender of it. Treat it like you got two heroes in the house. And then you’ll have no problems’. And I think she’s right.”

While Rani has shouldered many a film and played strong characters with a mind of their own, she doesn’t want her films to be typecast as ‘female-oriented’. In an earlier interview with Daily Mail, she said, “Shouldn’t we just know it as a film with strong characters irrespective of whether the lead is a man or woman? Do we ever refer a film as a strong male-oriented one? A film should be known by what it narrates on the screen and should not be highlighted with gender specifications. It’s time we overcome our set notions.”

Even outside of films, Rani believes in empowering women to stand up for themselves. “We need to strengthen our girls physically by teaching them self defence techniques and martial art. It’s time that women realise that they no longer need a man to protect them. Rather, there should be so much fear in men that they should watch out before ill treating or insulting a woman,” she had told India Today.

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