Two decades into one of Hindi cinema’s more restless careers, Kangana Ranaut has mapped out the arc herself: from volatile, neurotic roles to national icons, and now toward a quieter kind of characters.

Kangana Ranaut on her early "neurotic, suicidal" roles and the career shift that followed

Kangana Ranaut on her early “neurotic, suicidal” roles and the career shift that followed

From ‘edgy girl’ to girl next door

In a conversation with India Today, Ranaut traced her trajectory back to her 2006 debut in Gangster, directed by Anurag Basu, which set the tone for a string of similarly intense parts.

“All the films have made such a strong impact and pushed me in different directions. Whether it was those very neurotic characters in Gangster (2006), Woh Lamhe (2006), Life in a… Metro (2007), Fashion (2008) – there was this series of neurotic roles, and I was known as this edgy girl who was temperamental, neurotic, hot, sexy, suicidal, all of that. Then I transformed that image into the comedy, girl-next-door space with Queen (2013), Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Panga (2020), and others,” she said.

Leadership roles and what comes next

Ranaut said that once the girl-next-door image began to feel limiting, she consciously pivoted toward portraying real historical figures.

“Then came a time when it was too much of the girl-next-door image, and I took on roles like Rani Lakshmibai, Jayalalithaa, and Indira Gandhi – leadership roles. And now there’s a phase where I’m going into portraying the very basic woman, the unseen woman who blends into the background and whom nobody really pays attention to. So, this is the next phase,” she added.

She described all her roles as “equally important,” and noted that whenever she sensed she was being typecast, she deliberately moved in a different direction.

Bharat Bhagya Vidhata and the unseen woman

That next phase takes shape in her upcoming film Bharat Bhagya Vidhata, in which she plays a nurse, a role quite removed from the commanding figures she has embodied in recent years.

The film is based on the true events of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks and focuses on the medical and security staff at Cama and Albless Hospital, which protected nearly 400 patients during the siege.

It follows a varied recent run that has included an International Task Force agent in Dhaakad (2022), a fighter jet pilot in Tejas, and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in Emergency. Bharat Bhagya Vidhata is scheduled to release on June 12, 2026.

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