Life comes full circle. In 1996, Rani Mukerji made a growling debut with Raja Ki Aayegi Baaraat, in which she played a young feminist who has the torturous misfortune of being married off to her rapist. She, however, refuses to fall in line. In 2014, with the beginning of the Mardaani series, Rani stepped into the shoes of Shivani Shivaji Roy, a no-nonsense cop adamant to bring all criminal misogynists to justice. It seemed like a natural progression to her filmography, marked by strong women in even stronger roles. In the year she completes 30 years in the industry, comes Mardaani 3, where she reprises her role of Shivani, expanding her jurisdiction into bringing down a child-trafficking network. Last year, Rani also won her first national award for her performance in Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway (2023), where she played a woman who will fight a country for her child.
On a lazy afternoon, we sat with Rani in her breezy Juhu office as she reminisced about her first film, her need for audience validation, her irritation with actors who claim to not watch films and what makes her a different parent.
Excerpts:
At a time when actresses were introduced with love-interest roles, it must be something to play a rape-victim in your first film…
To be honest, when you do your first film, you don't really have a choice. I could have gone for a lighter role, but this was all I had. I had to either accept it or let go of the opportunity. I was just 16 or 17 when I did the film. When you are so young, you don't understand the impact of the scene you have done.
Did you understand the themes of the film?
Not as clearly as somebody older would do. Rape and harassment were not spoken about in the way they are today. Shooting for the scene where I am walking away after the rape and everybody is covering me, that left a mark.
The Rani Mukerji-role in the 90s and early 2000s was always that of an assured woman, which I think must be a rarity at a time when women characters were largely ornamental. Were you intentionally seeking such meaty roles?
I think they just came to me. I am lucky that the projects I did were those that resonated with me as a woman, as a person. I am sure that if these opportunities went to someone else, they would have grabbed them too. But I never let these chances pass by. They became part of my journey, but they were obviously written by somebody else. I had not written those characters or added something to them.
You are stepping into the shoes of your Mardaani character Shivani Shivaji Roy for the third time. When you play one role over and over, do you discover something deep in the character?
Yes. It also helped that the makers gave a full-roundedness to the character. With each story, I had to decide if Shivani would tackle a situation with anger, observance, control or no control. There is also a gradual change in her through the years, and also in me as a person. I have grown with her.
At a time in cinema when strength is all about how much violence you can inflict. How would you define a strong female character?
I think a strong female character is one who has control over her choices. She can command the situation she is in. But she can also be vulnerable when need be. Being strong doesn't mean you have to always wield a sword. There is a lot of strength in silence.
The Mardaani series is also known for its villains. Tahir Raj Bhasin in the first part, then Vishal Jethwa and now Mallika Prasad. What is the process of choosing a formidable antagonist?
I think the main person to make these decisions is Adi (YRF head Aditya Chopra). He has to feel that the person actually suits the part. I don't think he casts on the basis of who these people are and where they come from. Apart from him, there is also Shanoo (Casting director Shanoo Sharma), the director and me. It has to be bang on for everybody. For Mallika, I think it was just her demeanour. She really fit like a glove into the part of Amma. She is also a very accomplished theatre artist, so that really added to the whole thing.
In a lot of your previous interviews, you have said that your first instinct as an actor is to satisfy your audience. That gets me thinking. Don't you feel the audience, at times, can demand you to do the same thing they liked over and over again? How do you avoid repetition in role choices then?
When I say that I want my audience's acceptance, I don't mean that I need their acceptance for my choices. The choice is mine. My perseverance and my hard work is to make them believe that I am a particular character and they should love me as that character. So, if I am playing Devika in Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway, they might not agree with the choice of role I have taken, but it is my job to be convincing in that.
Walk me through creating Debika for Mrs Chatterjee Vs Norway. You said that you modelled her after your mother?
Yes. My mother actually had a very proactive kind of love for my brother and me. When I read Debika's character, there is nobody but my mother who came to my mind, because just like the character, she too is a true-blue Bengali mom. Although my husband says that I am like her, I think I am a different kind of parent.
How would you say you are different?
I think what our parents brought to us during our upbringing was also their traumas. They didn't know how to differentiate because they were brought up with their own parents’ trauma. I don't believe in passing that on to my child. I think today, with so much awareness, our parenting is much different. Because our children also call us out. We didn't have the guts, ek chaped padti (one slap we would have gotten) (laughs).
Do you get time to catch films?
Oh, I am film crazy. I catch every release in theatres. I actually don't understand when actors say, 'Oh, I don't watch movies.' Then why do you expect others to watch your films?
What do you think of the current cinema landscape then? Where bearded men are out, saving the day. Do you think the juggernaut success of such aggressive films leaves less space for softer films to come in theatres?
I don't know about that. I try to think about my own career trajectory. I am more concerned about that.