Fashion star: Cover story: Leading lady

Wednesday, February 27, 2019

Cover story: Leading lady

Girls growing up in the ’90s would attest to the overarching influence that Bollywood had on the street style of the country’s towns and smaller cities. This was the decade of Madhuri Dixit and that aubergine sari and red lace dress of Hum Aapke Hai Koun! (1994), Kajol and her wide-as-a-forehead cloth headbands of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) and A-line dresses of Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), of ripped magazine pages, annoyed tailors and factory-made knocks-offs, of satisfactory experiments and fashion crimes. Kangana Ranaut’s came in 1997, with Dil To Pagal Hai—but it wasn’t Karisma Kapoor’s hotpants that you’d imagine an adolescent would veer towards. “I was in the sixth standard, really tiny, and I would wear these transparent kurtas with the little bustier that Madhuri Dixit wore in the film, and my teachers would scold me for that…”

Now, she’s the one setting the template. Ranaut recently won the National Award for her role in Queen (2014), where she played Rani, a shy, protected girl from Delhi’s Rajouri Garden, who, ditched by the groom on the wedding day, decides to trudge to her Parisian honeymoon alone. In an industry centred on a certain kind of narcissism, where a pair of horn-rimmed glasses are often known to stand between the timid girl-next-door and her inherent bombshell-dom, the role of Rani was endearing for the honesty Ranaut brought to her portrayal. There was no attempt to bridge character and actor by clinging on to a vanity that demands that one can never look less than perfect, or that one should, at least, keep hinting at the perfection lurking right beneath the surface. In the end if Rani emerged transformed, she didn’t turn into Kangana Ranaut with her pumpkin carriage tucked around the corner.

Because, Kangana Ranaut, you see, is not Rani. Yes, she’s very, very nice, as anyone who’s met her will tell you. We’re in a vanity van parked in a dilapidated mill compound off Mumbai’s Colaba Causeway. While her trademark curls are being combed out and rolled up, the make-up artist is dabbing away. “Some tea?” she asks, before offering to hold my dictaphone. You’d think you’re in her drawing room and not a pre-shoot hair and make-up session, with the attendant blow-drying and curling and spritzing and stippling.

Unlike Rani, though, it’s hard to imagine Ranaut not holding her own anywhere. Whereas the former’s scariest daylight nightmare involved being chased down the streets of Paris by the looming Eiffel, Miss Ranaut was front row at Dior at Paris Fashion Week this March, very much at ease getting clicked backstage with Raf Simons. Kangana Ranaut is totally, naturally stunning, but she’s also one of our most fashionable actors, who’s let her gentle intelligence percolate to a natural, instinctive knack for putting together looks that look personal in an overly choreographed circuit.

There could be an emerald Gauri & Nainika gown one day, a sheer-panelled nude dress from Rohit Gandhi + Rahul Khanna on another, and then a Tom Ford sequinned jersey dress over fishnet stockings if she feels like it.

At an award function a year ago, where a red-carpet reporter asked her what she’d rather flaunt, cleavage or legs, she pointed to her little Red Valentino dress, laughed good-naturedly and exclaimed, “But I’m showing both!” She’s worked hard at training her eye, and is more often than not on-trend, pairing metallic pointy pumps with a billowing Dior bustier gown from spring/summer 2014, marcel waves with an old-Hollywood-esque floor-length Gucci gown, or keeping it simple in an embellished Zara sweater and faux leather pencil skirt at a film premiere. For the actor who describes her personal style as a bit of “grunge” and “rugged”, shopping sprees span the gamut from Valentino and Miu Miu pieces from Milan to buried treasures unearthed at vintage stores in London and Paris.

When one’s off-screen persona assumes a certain character, one much liked and admired, isn’t it tempting to retain a part of it on screen? How does a fashionable actor, who’s invited to sit front row at fashion weeks, seem so comfortable letting go of that aspect of oneself while assuming roles that aren’t always flattering?

“I don’t get carried away with the glamour of our business. I would never let it affect what I do. If I’m told to play a 40-year-old—which I did in Revolver Rani—I would do everything to fit the role. I used prosthetics to make my nose appear crooked, I had scars all over my body. I would not compromise on the character just because I’m called a ‘style icon’ or because people think I’m pretty. If a role requires me to be this person with a very funny dress sense, my primary concern is to do justice to that,” says the actor.