page_title: Kangana Ranaut
section_title: 2004–2008: Film debut and critical acclaim
hierarchical_section_title: Kangana Ranaut / Career / 2004–2008: Film debut and critical acclaim
caption_attribution_description: English: Kangana Ranaut at GIFA in 2006
context_page_description: Kangana Ranaut is an Indian actress and filmmaker who works in Hindi films. The recipient of several awards, including three National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards, she has featured six times in Forbes India's Celebrity 100 list. In 2020, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri, the country's fourth highest civilian award.
  Born in Bhambla, a small town in Himachal Pradesh, Ranaut initially aspired to become a doctor at the insistence of her parents. Determined to build her own career path, she relocated to Delhi at age sixteen, where she briefly became a model. After training under the theatre director Arvind Gaur, Ranaut made her feature film debut in the 2006 thriller Gangster, for which she was awarded the Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut. She received praise for portraying emotionally intense characters in the dramas Woh Lamhe, Life in a... Metro and Fashion. For the last of these, she won the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress.
  Ranaut featured in the commercially successful films Raaz: The Mystery Continues and Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai, though she was criticised for being typecast in neurotic roles. A comic role opposite R.
context_section_description: 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's next role was in the Mohit Suri-directed drama Woh Lamhe (2006), a semi-biographical film based on the schizophrenic actress Parveen Babi and her relationship with the director Mahesh Bhatt. She said that portraying Babi had left her emotionally drained, as she had begun to "feel her desolation and loneliness." Film critic Subhash K. Jha wrote that Ranaut "is the first female performer of Bollywood since Smita and Shabana who isn't scared to strip her soul naked for the camera", adding that she is a "hugely expressive actress with a phenomenal ability to convey torment, hurt and incredulity through the eyes". Despite positive reviews, the film underperformed at the box office.
  The following year, Ranaut portrayed an aspiring musician in Suneel Darshan's musical thriller Shakalaka Boom Boom, alongside Bobby Deol, Upen Patel and Celina Jaitly. The film's production was marred by a dispute between Ranaut and Darshan; she objected to her voice being dubbed by another artist, but he insisted that he needed a particular "twang and accent" for her character. India Today described the film as an "amateur mess" and the film proved to be a box office flop. She next reunited with Anurag Basu for the ensemble drama Life in a... Metro, playing the supporting role of Neha, a shrewd socialite engaged in an affair with her married boss (played by Kay Kay Menon). Despite a poor initial run at the box office, the film emerged as a profitable venture. Khalid Mohamed of Hindustan Times was critical of the film, noting its lack of originality and realism. In a more positive review, Raja Sen wrote that Ranaut "is refreshing [...] and manages to herd her emotions well, playing a complex role but hardly ever overreaching", but criticised her delivery of English lines. For her role, Ranaut was awarded the Stardust Award for Breakthrough Performance – Female.
  Ranaut next portrayed a village girl in Dhaam Dhoom (2008), a Tamil romantic thriller, opposite Jayam Ravi. Production on the film was temporarily halted when the director, Jeeva, died of cardiac arrest and the film was completed by the crew members. A review carried by Post wrote that Ranaut had "little scope" in a role that did not suit her. India Today described her next film, the Madhur Bhandarkar-directed drama Fashion (2008), as a "landmark" in her career. Set against the backdrop of the Indian fashion industry, the film co-starred Priyanka Chopra and Mugdha Godse and featured Ranaut as Shonali Gujral, a substance abusing supermodel struggling to cope with her foundering career. Because the media speculated that her role was based on the former model Geeta
caption: Ranaut at the 2006 Global Indian Film Awards where she won the Best Female Debut award for Gangster[19]
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