Rani Mukherjee turns 29
21st Mar 2007 21.42 IST
By Aparajita Ghosh

Bollywood beauty Rani Mukherjee , a storehouse of talent, turns 29 years of age on Wednesday, March 21.

Ten years ago when Rani Mukherjee acted in her first movie, an inconsequential ‘Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat’, hardly had anyone suspected the potential she had.

Despite coming from a filmi background (her father Ram Mukherjee was a director, and her maternal aunt Debashree Roy was a Bengali actress), Rani did not get success on a platter. She had to struggle and strive for every bit of fame.

Things began changing with the coming of ‘Ghulam’, (opposite Aamir Khan ). Her dusky, ethereal beauty and blue eyes made her perfectly suited to play the glamourous heroine in Hindi films. However, it took time for the filmmakers to accept her husky voice. Her dialogues in ‘Ghulam’ were dubbed. Even Karan Johar did not let her dub her own dialogues in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai .

But Rani was not to be bogged down. Since then, not only has she made her husky voice her asset, she has been continually rising on the ladder of fame in Bollywood. Today, she is among the top actresses in Hindi film industry.

Her most memorable performance till day is without doubt that of a blind, deaf and mute girl in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Black . The filmmaker himself declared publicly in an award function that Rani, in his opinion, was “the best actress in the world”.

Today, Rani is working in some of the biggest projects in Bollywood. This year we will see her in two films being made under Yashraj Films: Siddharth Anand’s Tara Rum Pum and Pradeep Sarkar’s Laaga Chunari Mein Daag .

There have been reports recently that Rani may tie the knot soon. However, there has been no confirmation of this by the actress, as she doesn’t like discussing her personal life in media.

On Rani’s 29th birthday, TV channel Star Gold is paying a tribute to her with a number of her movies and a special show in which her old friends will speak about her and celebrate her birthday.