Kangana Ranaut has wrapped up filming for Vishal Bhardwaj’s Rangoon and will reportedly soon start gearing up for Hansal Mehta’s next, tentatively titled Simran. According to sources, the actress will reprise the role of a real life bank robber . The script, being written by Apurva Asrani of Aligarh fame, is loosely based on real incidents in the life of an NRI in the United States, Sandeep Kaur, who has been convicted of robbing four banks in America and is now serving time in prison.
Unlike Kaur, Kangana will be playing a Gujarati girl in the film with a strong cultural background for which she has been told to watch Gujarati films and plays. She’s to learn local dialects and will also be speaking to the Indian diaspora in the United States to understand their lifestyle.
Kangana will begin prepping for her role once she is back from her holiday in Austria. The film is to be shot in Gujarat, Atlanta, San Francisco, San Jose, Las Vegas, and maybe even Los Angeles over a 90-day period.
I play a bank robber in the film. The story is inspired by real-life incidents but not directly by Sandeep Kaur. It’s about a Gujarati girl who dreams of making it big, she sets out to fulfil her mother’s dream but ends up losing everything. She is very self-assured, that’s an endearing trait about the community.Kangana Ranaut (Mumbai Mirror)
Sandeep Kaur, who was called as the ‘Bombshell Bandit’ because of her glamorous get-ups and bomb threats, was a well- dressed, educated, young ABCD (American-Born-Confused-Desi) who turned into an infamous bank robber.
The US courts were perplexed at Kaur’s background, and what led her to rob in the first place. She researched using her iPhone to learn about successful and unsuccessful robberies. Sandeep, a nurse in Sacramento did not have the muscle nor accomplice or getaway car to pull off some of the cons that she did.
According to authorities, she did not fit the profile of a robber at all, reports the BBC.
Sandeep was born in Chandigarh and she, along with her parents moved to the United States when she was 7. They lived in San Jose, California which has a majority Indian American population but Kaur, never quite felt at home. She wore boys’ on-sale clothing that her mother bought growing up, was bullied for being a person of color; especially after the 9/11 attacks. She grew up in isolation when her parents banned mobile phones, television, and mingling with friends.
When her mother fell ill and was hospitalized, Kaur was fascinated with the friendly nurse who took care of her mother and decided on the path to be one too. She started college at the extraordinary age of 15 and got her license to become a nurse at the age of 19. In 2008, when the American economy crashed, she invested in stock market and ended up making $200,000!
Like any teen, she started partying with boys, and lying to her mother and on her 21st birthday, Kaur decided to go to Las Vegas with her cousin. With a stroke of beginner’s luck, she won $4,000 and was instantly infatuated with gambling.
With financial pressures from her mother, Kaur found gambling as her escape route and started betting more and more. After a winning streak, things started to fall apart and she had a debt to the casino.
Almost like a film scene playing out, she was approached by some men who offered her money to pay off her debts and win more. She thought she could pull it off and agreed to the high-interest loan. But she didn’t win and soon had to run away to hide from the loan-sharks. She vowed to never go back to gambling. But when she got married and her husband provided her an allowance, she couldn’t stay away. The money started depleting while her marriage went downhill.
In 2014, she was approached by some men who claimed she owed them $25,000 while threatening to harm her family. They suggested she rob a bank, even trying to give her a gun. Cornered, with no hope of her financial conditions improving, Kaur decided to do it. With a tawdry wig and some quick thinking, she pulled it off the first time, and paid off her creditors. But they demanded more.
Soon, Kaur began researching other bank robberies and decided to do it again. It’s almost comical how she pulled off some of her cons. Wearing flashy clothes, high heels and ridiculous wigs she would scribble on a paper: “TICK TOCK I HAVE A BOMB” - and soon got nicknamed ‘Bombshell Bandit’ by the FBI.
The media couldn’t get enough of Kaur’s story given her background and upbringing. When she was finally caught, authorities claimed she was not completely honest about her story and also did not appear to show any regrets for her actions.
It will be interesting to see how Mehta adapts Kaur’s story into his script. Kangana, playing the titular lead, is the best fit for such a complex character. It will be exciting to watch her as the ‘Bombshell Bandit’ as she gambles away in the City of Sin and robs banks across the United States.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)