From small town girl to star: The story of Kangana Ranaut's unparalleled style

by Mitali Parekh Well, ladies and gentlemen, she’s done it. Kangana Ranaut – the girl with curls, Ms Small Town whose accent made everyone snigger and the actress that everyone dismissed – has become a bona fide Bollywood star. With her latest release Tanu Weds Manu Returns entering the Rs 100-crore club, Ranaut has shown that she belongs to that rare breed of actors who can inspire enough fandom to inspire audiences flock to theatres. If there are few men in Bollywood who can lay claim to this quality, there are even fewer women. But Ranaut does and she’s has just made that list a little longer with her recent successes. [caption id=“attachment_2273102” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kangana Ranaut. Image from Facebook.[/caption] Back when the first Tanu Weds Manu came out, the film’s success was a surprise. Its trump card was Madhavan and so, the fact that the sequel is all about Ranaut is proof of the actress’s rise. After nine years in Bollywood, Ranaut doesn’t need a hero to prop her up and she can carry the weight of the film (and a double role) on her shoulders. Today, she has the style and swagger – both on and off screen – to wow everyone. She’ll wear whatever her character needs to on screen. For public appearances, Ranaut wears Dior, Burberry and Chanel. And because she is Ranaut, she has been buying these outfits, rather than receiving them with compliments of the designer and couture house as many actresses do. On screen, Ranaut is one of the few mainstream actresses who is ready to risk looking ugly or awkward. Not for her the fairy tale of the ugly duckling. The gawky Ranaut won’t transform once she gets a make-over and a man. She remains the same – gawky as she is and as enthusiastic about fake buck teeth as lip fillers. This is a departure from Barbie-esque perfection that we see in actresses like Katrina Kaif, who tend to look much the same on and off screen. Ranaut, in contrast, displays far more panache in her public appearances because on screen, she’s in character. And her characters don’t have much in common with Barbie. The roles Ranaut has picked have been challenging, offering a pointed contrast to the conventional version of rustic, deglamourised beauty – which nevertheless feels artificial – that we’ve seen on Sonam Kapoor, for instance, in films like Bhaag Milkha Bhaag, Raanjhanaa and Dilli 6. This is best illustrated in Ranaut’s latest role as Kusum in Tanu Weds Manu Returns. The choppy wig, the buck teeth, the ugly salwar kameezes with cropped sweaters, the track suits, should be applauded because not only is this good costume design, but also a sign of how seriously and without vanity Ranaut gets into a character. Not even when there’s a wedding scene does Ranaut break out of the realistic mould. Kusum’s wedding lehenga is unglamorous. Her jewellery is minimal, which is in line with the no-nonsense personality. Her concessions to bridal convention: dark, red lipstick that draws attention to her mouth. It’s a clever move because this also means that we keep our eyes on the one feature that distinguishes Kusum from Manu – Kusum’s teeth. This commitment to character isn’t new to Ranaut. In Queen, one of the winning moments was seeing Rani returns from her solo honeymoon, without a makeover but with a confidence that makes her glow and is subtly displayed in her choice of clothing. People don’t really sustain 180-degree makeovers the way characters tend to in movies. However, what is credible is a slight sophistication in the way one wears their hair and clothes. It’s almost as though Ranaut, whose looks are distinctly unconventional despite her checking the boxes of being fair and thin, is making a point with her on-screen appearance. A makeover suggests one is not presentable or attractive as they are. Rani – much like most of the roles Ranaut has taken on – is neither. She isn’t insecure about her looks and she doesn’t need to be transformed. So Rani returns to India, looking much the same, only with hair blow-dried straight and wearin a sleeveless kurta. And it matches the person Rani is in Queen. She’s the prudent, middle-class girl who gets drunk, dances on the bar, but has the good sense to stuff the sweater she peels off in her bag (instead of flinging it in the air or losing it altogether). In Krissh 3, we saw Ranaut in a very different avatar. She played the reptilian shape-shifter Kaya. Pitted against the sweet Priya (Priyanka Chopra), Ranaut mixed sexy and bizarre in a latex suit, horned hairstyle and slanted eyebrows. Not too many actresses would risk looking weird when sharing the scene with two bigger seat fillers, but Ranaut did. The gamble paid off. Can you remember any of Chopra’s outfits? Probably not. The image of Ranaut in latex, however, is difficult to forget. There was a time not too long ago when Ranaut’s sartorial experiments were more misses than hits. She made an impression, but for the wrong reasons and was mocked for the way she spoke and how she appeared. Yet, despite those faux pas, we all noticed that here was a curly-haired creature who refreshingly dressed her age. She wore gowns or even jeans to movie screenings and releases, instead of lacy saris and lehengas. She did not iron her hair or deepen her eyes with kajal. Ranaut made many, many style mistakes, but they only served to endear her to us and set her apart from lacquered, mass-produced Bollywood heroine. Perhaps they also helped Ranaut figure out the eclectic style that makes her a fashionista’s dream today. Today, she transitions from the garb that her role requires to the couture that befits her star status with effortless grace. And the only thing that you may be sure of is that whatever Ranaut may be wearing, she’ll stand out for all the right reasons.