Kangana Ranaut is a popular Bollywood actress who appears in Hindi and South Indian movies. She marked her presence in the Indian film industry through the movie Gangster in the year 2006 which was followed by a series of commercially successful movies. Her remarkable performances in the movie have also earned her a number of awards and nominations. Before stepping into Bollywood, Kangana initiated her career as a theatre actress.

Early Life of Kangana Ranaut
Kangana Ranaut was born on March 20, 1987 in Bhambla, Mandi, Himachal Pradesh. Ranaut`s mother Asha Ranaut is a schoolteacher and her father Amardeep Ranaut happens to be a businessman. Kangana Ranaut has one elder sister, Rangoli and a younger brother, Akshit. Kangana Ranaut did her schooling in Dehradun, from DAV model school. She attended college just for a few months. She wanted to become a model and thus in 2003 joined the Elite Modelling Agency.

Career of Kangana Ranaut
Ranaut started her career as theatre actor in Delhi with the locally popular Asmita theatre group. She took training under eminent theatre director Arvind Gaur. She participated in his theatre workshop at India Habitat Centre and performed in several plays. Girish Raghunath Karnad`s Tale-Danda (Rakt-Kalyan) was her first play with Arvind Gaur. In this classic play Kangana Ranaut was playing Lalitamba`s character. On the main show day one male actor could not attend the show and it was a crucial time for Arvind`s team but Kangana was ready at the moment for Damodar Bhatt`s role within one hour. Damodar Bhatt`s role was very challenging but that day Kangana`s performance in both in the male and female characters was outstanding.

Kangana Ranaut travelled to Mumbai to try her luck in movies and received the offer for Mahesh Bhatt`s 2006 film `Gangster`. In this film she worked with Shiney Ahuja and Emraan Hashmi. During September 2005, Hindi Film-maker Anurag Basu noticed her having coffee in a cafe in Mumbai and immediately signed her up for this movie. The film Gangster was critically and commercially successful and her performance was especially applauded. This was followed by another acclaimed performance in the film `Woh Lamhe` (2006).

Within a short while, Kangana Ranaut starred in yet another Anurag Basu project, Life in a Metro. This film was a smash hit and Kangana Ranaut`s performance got well noticed. After starring in few movies she starred opposite Priyanka Chopra in the Madhur Bhandarkar movie Fashion. Kangana won rave reviews for her role in the movie. She made her Tamil debut with the film, `Dhaam Dhoom`, directed by the late director, Jeeva. She also acted in other hit movies like Raaz - The Mystery Continues with Emraan Hashmi, Ek Niranjan, a Telugu movie, Kites with Hrithik Roshan, Tanu Weds Manu alongside Madhavan, Game, Ready, Double Dhamaal, Rascals, Miley Naa Miley Hum, Krrish 3 and many more.

Kangana Ranaut made her directional debut through a short film which dealt with the complex subject of human relationship with animals. The movie was shot in the US and was written in collaboration with an Australian writer.

Achievements of Kangana Ranaut
Kangana received a number of awards for her debut movie Gangster including Asian Festival of First Films, Best Actress; Filmfare Best Female Debut Award; Filmfare Fairever Fresh Face of the Year Award; IIFA Best Female Debut Award; Star Screen Awards for Most Promising Newcomer - Female; Zee Cine Awards for Best Female Debut; Stardust Superstar of Tomorrow - Female and Bollywood Movie Award - Best Female Debut. In the year 2008, she won Stardust Breakthrough Performance Award (Female) for her movie Life in a... Metro. The movie Fashion once again earned her several awards in 2009 namely National Film Awards for Best Supporting Actress, Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award, IIFA Best Supporting Actress Award, Stardust Best Supporting Actress Award and Apsara Awards Best Supporting Actress.

Filmography of Kangana Ranaut