I Wanted to Be My Own Hero: Kangana Ranaut

Kangana Ranaut talks about growing up as a girl and fiercely believes that women need to become their own heroes.

Kangana Ranaut poses for her fans and the media (Photo: Reuters)

Kangana Ranaut can now safely be called an international celebrity. Bearing testimony to this was her presence at the ‘Women In The World’ summit, held in London earlier this week. If you haven’t had the time to watch her video interview with BBC’s Shabnam Mahmood, these excerpts will bring you up to speed and also take your respect for the actress, up a few notches. Kudos to this fiercely unapologetic, independent strong woman!

Kangana Ranaut speaks her mind at the ‘Women In The World’ summit (Photo: YouTube/Women In The World)

“I Wanted to Be My Own Hero”

I was a pain, a rebellious child. I didn’t see myself, the way my family saw me. I didn’t see myself as a liability. I didn’t think that I was born with the sole purpose of finding myself a good enough husband, who could take care of me. I saw myself as much more than that. I had a mind of my own. I wanted to be my own hero and that even led to me running away from my house. My father had a lot of expectations from my brother, but I wanted to do something that would make him proud of me.
– Kangana Ranaut, Actor

Kangana Ranuat in a scene from Nikhil Advani’s Katti Batti

“I’m a Lot More Than My Appearance”

It was no fairytale story. I struggled for ten long years. I couldn’t speak a word of English (sarcastically). In England, people can understand but in Bombay, they aren’t very forgiving. They would say that how can you work in Hindi films when you don’t understand English? I’m  a lot more than my age, or my appearance or my colour or my hair. I have always believed that. It is true that Bollywood films do objectify women, not all but some.
– Kangana Ranaut

Kangana Ranaut rocks it at the Paris Fashion Week (Photo courtesy: Twitter/@KanganaDaily)

“Love and the Feminine Touch Can Conquer the Darkest Corners of the Soul”

As a society, as people, not just in India but it’s a problem everywhere -femininity as an emotion, femininity as a quality. It could be kindness. Compassion is seen as a weakness when it’s not. Even children and men who display these emotions are seen as weaker beings. We need to change that mentality. We need to respect femininity as an emotion, not suppress it or crush it, but to love and value it. History is a witness that if (there is) anything that could conquer the darkest corners of the human soul, it is love, the feminine touch.
– Kangana Ranaut

When you start from a point that is so low because as a girl, if your birth is not a tragedy then it is at least a setback for your family. So it’s difficult for you to take pride in your own self, to have confidence in your own being and your actions. Through films we can plant ideas in people’s brains that can grow into significant things and bring out significant changes.
– Kangana Ranaut

Kangana Ranaut poses for the camera in a pastel pink (Photo: Yogen Shah)

“I Don’t Seek Anyone’s Approval”

I don’t think we need anyone else’s approval as actresses. Women need to be confident about themselves. Others’ opinions about you will always change, but we need to value ourselves. I don’t seek anyone’s approval. They dismissed me when I first started out. I was a nobody but today I am who I am because my understanding of myself never changed. As women, we don’t want an approval. We should get up and get what we want for ourselves.
– Kangana Ranaut