Rani Mukerji has undoubtedly been one of the most successful and talented actresses Bollywood has ever seen. Her pairing with the three Khans – Shah Rukh, Aamir and Salman has been greatly appreciated and not to forget – have been some of us 90s kids favourite films. I still obsess over Saathiya! Anyway, post her marriage with ace producer Aditya Chopra, Rani went off the grid for a while until she came back with Mardaani – which was a roaring hit at the box office btw. She’s now busy being a mommy to her little bundle of joy Adira Chopra and often speaks about how much she enjoys it. Apart from that, Rani has been shooting for her next film Hichki and we can’t wait to see what she’s got in store for us!
Rani lost her father recently and naturally, it isn’t an easy process for any child to go through. Rani opened up about how she felt depressed but seeing her daughter helped her come out of it. She also revealed to DNA that she has had a stammering problem her whole life.
I was very conscious of it(stammering) early on in life, so I made sure that I worked towards my lines in such a way that I knew them thoroughly and I would know where to take the pauses exactly to be able to camouflage that. I always choose to look at the positive side of things. In fact, spending time with Adira and seeing her happy gave me a lot of strength to come out of a sort of depression that I got into because of my father passing away recently.
Can you believe she’s had it for 22 years now but nobody knew? She worked really hard to overcome it, she added.
Yes, for 22 years, I have somehow successfully camouflaged it, so nobody has really come to know that I stammer. Even my team told me that they had no idea about it despite them having known me for so many years. So, I was like, ‘probably, I have worked on it or found a way of not stammering (in front of others) or showing the other person that I do (stammer). So, they were all shocked and said that people should know about it, and I am fine with it. I didn’t think it was something that needed to be spoken about at that point. But today, many want to know about people who have had such ‘weaknesses’ so that such examples can encourage other people – who are also experiencing the same things- to come out of it. It possibly gives a lot of inspiration to people to follow that kind of an example.
That’s an incredible success story. More power to you, Rani, and we can’t wait to see you at the movies! <3