Here's what makes Kangana the undisputed 'Queen' of Bollywood

Not many in the Hindi Film Industry have charted a career graph as steeply as Kangana Ranaut. A 19 year old ‘pahadi’ face straight from the hills of Himachal with curly hair, strange accent but a metal like conviction! More than a decade ago, when Kangana made her debut in Anurag Basu’s Gangster alongside Emraan Hashmi and Shiney Ahuja, not many would have put their money on this outlandish girl challenging the stereos of cinema.

With as many as 3 National Awards in a career spanning just 11 years, to put Kangana’s ability to test wouldn’t just be unfair but also stupid. While she pulls over a performance like Queen on one end of her career, she follows it up by doing a Tanu Weds Manu Returns to floor over her critics in one go. As she completes 11 years filled with recognition, applause and a fair bit of controversies, let this article talk of the positives. Here are some highlights of Kangana’s supremely eventful journey:

Debut Year (2006)

Having made a successful and noteworthy debut with Gangster in April 2006, Kangana not only launched herself as a potential actress, she also became a top contender for driving female centric roles. She walked away with the Best Female Debut award of the year at all major events.

The same year, she followed it up with yet another powerful performance in Mohit Suri’s Woh Lamhe. The film that was apparently based on the love episode of Mahesh Bhatt and Parveen Babi gave yet another reason for people to applaud Kangana even more, as she delivered a striking performance.

Sluggish Patch After a Good Start

Even though she had taken a positive start in her career, she seemed to have gone through a slight rough patch post then. The year 2007 in particular despite giving her a hit like Life In A Metro didn’t bring anything major otherwise. She even turned south to appear in a Tamil film meanwhile. The actress who had promised so much at the start was finding hard to sign something special.

The Resurgence

The following year brought the much needed resurgence for Kangana as she played the second fiddle to Priyanka Chopra in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Fashion. The film not only earned her the much coveted National Award, it brought her back into the mainstream business of Bollywood. She was found sweeping all major awards that season with the best supporting actress award and got set to break into the big business.

Hits and Misses

While on one hand she delivered an absolutely mind nerving performance in Mohit Suri’s Raaz: The Mystery Continues, her brief yet much anticipated outing alongside Hrithik Roshan in Kites fell flat. However, the following year in 2010, she delivered a major box office success with Milan Luthria’s Once Upon A Time In Mumbai opposite Ajay Devgn. While the glory of the film was much attributed to its lead cast and writing, Kangana still won a lot of hearts with her stellar of a performance.

The Game Changer

Amid the box office disaster she was going through with films like Knockout and No Problem, Aanand L. Rai came to her with a performance that was going to be the difference for Kangana. Never had anybody seen her in a chirpy, North Indian character and with Tanu Weds Manu she took everybody by surprise. The film that indeed earned her a box office hit later made way for a lot of characters she was going to be remembered for.

Silence Before The Storm

While Tanu Weds Manu gave her a flurry of offers that she even accepted, the masala entertainers she was being a part of bombed one after the other. With Game, Double Dhamaal, Rascals not working at all, some form of respite came through movies likes Shootout At Wadala and Krrish 3 where she had very little to offer amid everything.

Queen Comes To Rule

2014 and 2015 ultimately validated the fact that Kangana wasn’t just anybody who’d give up that easily. Taking over the charge in Vikas Bahl’s women centric comic drama Queen, Kangana put her entire career performance on one side and this on the other. The self discovering story of a girl who goes out on her honeymoon alone was something she impressed everybody with. Winning her first Best Actress National Award, Queen put Kangana as a frontrunner.

The Best Was Yet To Come

The pressure of coming out of a National Award winning performance is immense and everybody can fall victim to that but not Kangana. While people were still going gaga over her performance in Queen, there she came with a dual avatar in Tanu Weds Manu Returns only to further establish that her time had come. From playing Tanu, an eccentric wife looking for a rebound to being Datto, an honest Haryanvi girl finding her love, Kangana was all over the movie. Deservingly so, she won her 2^nd National Best Actress Award (3^rd in total) in 2 two consecutive years and became the highest paid Bollywood actress that year.

Despite the profound weight of controversies she always finds herself associated with, there is something that still speaks the loudest amongst all – her performances. If she could give us all of this in 11 years of her Bollywood journey, we just start to wonder what more she has in store for us! Looking forward to many more cinematic years from you lady and congratulations for having completed a decade in Bollywood. Not many successfully last this long!