Nearly a decade ago hardly anyone knew her, there were people who literally dismissed her as she was nobody, she was laughed at, by many for her weird accent and an even weirder appearance. But today she is the ‘Queen of Bollywood’, people who looked down at her back then, look up to her like a diva now. Yes, this is the journey of our honest, outspoken and rebellious Kangana Ranaut to Indian Cinema.

Kangana, who is among the top notch stars of Bollywood today has been invited to “Women in the World Summit“, held in London as ‘The new face of India‘ to represent our nation. During the interview Kangana spoke about her childhood, career and society – how rebellious she was as a kid, how her journey in Bollywood was not a cakewalk and how the society should treat a woman better.

Kangana Ranaut, the Fashionista who is better known for her unshabby attitude did her debut through the film, Gangster (2006) as the female lead. Though Kangana started with modelling, which she did not find it as a challenging career made her to pursue a career in acting. In less than 10 years, she became one of the leading actress and her choice of roles redefined the stereotypical Indian Heroine.

Unlike most of the stars, Kangana neither hails from a ‘Kapoor or Khan’ family nor has any connections with Bollywood prior to her entry. Being grown up in a village, belonging to a typical Indian family where every girl was expected to be grown up, to get a decent husband and had faced all the problems any girl could. She said that she was seen as a liability by her family but she did not feel the same, she knew that she was more than what others think of her, she was quite confident of herself. She was very rebellious from an young age, when her father had a lot of expectations from her brothers she wanted to be one, whom he could be proud of – to be her own hero.

When asked for the main reason why she had to leave home, she responded that ‘the quest, the understanding of myself that I’m a lot more than what people think I’m ‘. She said that she denied to go to school as she didn’t want to pursue science but wanted to take an year break to choose what she wanted to do. Her parents were not very supportive of this, she did not receive any financial support from home. She said “it was legitimate that my family showed me the highway when I wanted to choose my way“. She said that it was fair when her father told her, “I don’t have money to spend on your hobbies”.

When she first reached Mumbai, she suffered a lot, it wasn’t a fairy dream, there were times when she slept on pavements and had nothing to eat. Once her dad called her and asked, “Did you learn your lesson? No, you be ready to learn yours” is what she replied.

She couldn’t speak a word of English, people in England may understand but in Mumbai they couldn’t, they instead questioned her how she would act in a Hindi film if she doesn’t speak English. She also agreed to the fact how Bollywood films objectify woman, if not all but a few do.

Her way of putting words about feminism were very thoughtful. She said “feminine is not a gender, it is an emotion, kindness and love. It is a quality not to be seen as a weakness, it should be respected, not transgressed or crushed but to be loved and valued. The darkest and deepest corners of human’s soul is feminine, with emotions like compassion and love but not anger”.

Overall, Kangana did a wonderful job in representing our nation, this one line from her was applauded by each and everyone among the audience

Women has to accept themselves, you don’t need others opinion/approval about you. As women, we don’t have to hope that we will get our due, we have to get up and get it ourselves