Rani is not known to mince words and tells it like she sees it. Chatting about her film Hello Brother (1999), she shares that she had a lot of fun shooting for the film and working with the Khan family. It remains one of her greatest memories. However, the film went on to flop, shocking everyone associated with it. In retrospect, she believes that it should not have been Salman who was killed off in the film… “They should have killed Arbaaz instead,” she chuckles. What’s more, she thinks even Arbaaz will agree with her view!
She also shares that when director Shaad came to her with Saathiya (2002), saying he was remaking Mani Ratnam's film, she said no because she felt the South director had made a great film already. Slightly misguided and in the enthusiasm of youth, she had blithely refused this YashRaj offer. What’s worse, when Aditya Chopra called her for a meeting to discuss her reasons for turning down the film, she didn’t have a good enough answer and retorted, “Because the girl doesn't have a good role." Naturally, Adi burst out laughing, as the female lead character in Saathiya has one of the best roles ever!
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Rani accepts that she was rather mixed up in the head about films as a career. She was in class 10 when she was offered Aa Gale Lag Jaa by Salim Akhtar and she burst out crying! Films were not considered a favourable profession back then, she says, adding, “The word 'filmi' was treated as an abuse!” Her parents pacified her and eventually, Urmila Matondkar did the film. Two years later, Salim Uncle, as she calls him, was back offering her Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat (1997).
“My mom asked me if I wanted to just give it a try, and if I didn't like it, I could always go back to college. I thought she was being practical. At my screen test, they made me wear Mamta Kulkarni's clothes that she had worn in Salim uncle's previous film. And I was like, what are these clothes? They put glycerine in my eyes. It was crazy for me.” As destiny would have it, she never had to look back since.
