Why Kangana Ranaut can now be crowned the queen of Bollywood

The analogy might be politically incorrect and even reek of sexism but you know a Hindi film heroine has truly arrived when the audience, critics, and even the trade pundits start calling her a "Khan" at the box office. What makes comparing Kangana Ranaut's recent run at the box office with the three Khans more interesting is the fact that the actress has never worked opposite Aamir, Salman or Shah Rukh. Moreover, Ranaut would be one of the very few leading ladies in Hindi cinema in the past two and a half decades who managed to become an A-list entity without working opposite the Khans or with marquee production houses. Close on the heels of Queen, the 2014 surprise smash hit that cleared any doubts about her box office appeal, Ranaut was almost guaranteed a hit in the sequel of the film that had catapulted her to the big league, but her double whammy as Tanuja "Tanu" Trivedi and Kusum in Tanu Weds Manu Returns has established her as the number one in the field.

In the last four years, Ranaut has had a wonderful run. Her releases Tanu Weds Manu (2011), Queen (2014) and Tanu Weds Manu Returns have not only enjoyed commercial success but also garnered unparalleled critical acclaim for the actress. Ever since her debut in Gangster (2006) the actress has been a darling of the critics and managed to strike a fine balance between the typical commercial fare - Shakalaka Boom Boom (2007), Raaz: The Mystery Continues (2009), Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai (2010), Knock Out (2010); and the ones that offered her an opportunity to display her acting chops - Life in a Metro (2007), Fashion (2008). She has played the silent second lead - Kites (2010); the buffoon - No Problem (2010); the typical prop heroine - Rascals (2011), and even a hybrid vamp - Krrish 3 (2013). But what managed to sustain Kangana as a popular actress without the so-called woman-centric role or art-house outings was the impact that she left with her initial films.

Although Gangster was a regular Mukesh and Mahesh Bhatt production - songs, dance et al - it nonetheless had unusually gray shades. It demanded an actress convincing enough to play a woman who deceives a gangster who thinks of her as the love of his life for an undercover cop she believes to be the love of her life and yet, not lose the audiences' sympathy. Allegedly based on the supposed Monica Bedi-Abu Salem relationship, Kangana's portrayal as Simran in Gangster (2006) displayed strange warmth uncommon for a first-timer. The manner in which the maiden appearance infused, what could be best described, as an eerie familiarity with the character that she played, was a sign of a debutant poised for greater things. Similarly, the ease with which she slipped into Woh Lamhe's (2006) Sana Azim, rumored to have been inspired by the late Parveen Babi, showed that Ranaut wasn't averse to taking risks of a different kind. Usually in the realm of popular Hindi cinema, risk for heroines means either exposing or playing negative characters, but along with Gangster and Woh Lamhe, and later Fashion, for which she received a National Award for the Best Supporting Actor, Kangana showed a readiness to play characters that aren't bothered about redemption. While such a phenomenon is quite common in parallel or art-house cinema, where women get more chances to play real characters, to not just find roles within the purview of popular Hindi cinema but also manage to infuse such uniqueness within the standard characters is what separates Kangana from her peers.

Looking at three back-to-back commercial and critical successes it seems like the going couldn't get better for Kangana Ranaut. But the world of Hindi cinema is a strange place, for here unbridled success means different things for leading men and women. For a hero, this would be a streak while for a heroine it would be called luck and timing and everything in between. Ironically, the four years between Tanu Weds Manu and Queen would have been longer for Kangana than the time between Gangster and a shot at playing Tanu for the first time. Her non-film background made her a bigger outsider than the next actress and the success of Tanu Weds Manu, where her superlative performance made everyone sit up, a fluke. Perhaps, that's why the initial opening that the sequel of her most famous role enjoyed wasn't thought of as a portent of the sensation that her latest release has transformed into.

Kangana also hasn't been viewed as a typical Hindi film heroine, commercial or otherwise, and the one exceptional factor about the success of her "woman-centric" film Queen is that it doesn't imagine her as the "hero". The one given thing about films that feature women in central roles is that they often replace the hero and force-fit the actress in that template; but in Kangana's case it's good writing not only for her, but also an array of intriguing characters around her and her histrionics, of course. Additionally, her sartorial choices and her diction, something that she has used exceedingly well to her advantage, often mocked, are things of the past now. Even though she has played a multitude of characters ranging from a troubled actor to an afflicted fashion model, from a middle-class Delhi girl left at the altar to a socialite she has rarely tried to change herself or conceal the actor behind. And while there is a world of a difference between Simran of Gangster and Rani of Queen or Fashion's Shonali and Sana of Woh Lamhe, she hadn't completely transformed into a character up until Tanu Weds Manu Returns. With that box checked as well, it would be really interesting to see what Kangana Ranaut does next. Johnny Walker had once said that the moment an actor is mimicked, they transform into stars and if one takes a good long look then there's hardly anyone among her contemporaries whose mannerisms are imitated with more aplomb.