Rani Mukherjee

Born to Ram Mukherjee, who is one of the retired directors and Krishna, a playback singer, Rani Mujkerjee is the daughter of the film-oriented family 'Mukherji's. Her father was also a co-founder of 'Fimlalaya Studios'. Rani's brother Raja is a producer recently also turned to direction. Rani's maternal aunt was an actress in the Bengali industry, named Debashree Roy, and Kajol, a famous bollywood actress is her cousin.  

Rani did her schooling from Maneckjee Cooper High School, Juhu and she later went to Mithibai College located in Mumbai. Since the tenth grade she trained in Odissi, a dance form.  

At the tender age of 14, in 1992 Rani played a cameo in 'Biyar Phool', one of her father's movies. Salim Akhtar who is a family friend of the Mukherjee's and offered Rani a film 'Aa Gale Lag Jaa' in 1994, her father opposed this as she was only 16. Urmila Matondkar was the one cast instead later.  

In 1997, Salim Akhtar again came up with an offer for 'Raja Ki Ayegi Baraat', after an elongated conversation with her dad, and she finally did the film and since it failed miserably on the box office Rani got back to completing her college. 

But once she won a Filmfare for the category of Best Supporting Actress considering her role in 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai' she went on to sign 22 films in a row. This was when directors started taking her acting seriously.  

Several years ago she changed her surname from Mujherjee to Mukerji which is an English translation of the same. It was an alleged report that she also did so for numerological reasons. But however she declared that she wanted her name to be the same as it was read on her passport, that is Mukerji.  

In 2005 she won both Best Actress and also Best Actress in a Supporting Actress, this was the first time in Bollywood that an actor won so. 

Two of Rani's movies have also been India's entry into the Academy Awards, Paheli in 2005 was an official one at the Oscars for 2006 and Hey Ram in 2000.   

Rani was a part of a showcase performance on Indian Culture in Melbourne at the event of the closing ceremony in the 2006 Common wealth games which was the welcoming of the Common wealth games for 2010, commencing in New Delhi.  

Rani also does a lot of charity appearances in order to promote noble causes. She performed in Temptations 2005 in Delhi, which was a noteworthy show. The event helped to raise some funds for the organisation - National Centre For Promotional of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), which is a leading rights group for the disabled. Also filmstars like Priyanka Chopra and Shahrukh Khan were seen at this event.