Why was Rani so repetitive in her film roles?

How many 'versatile' roles were written for commercial actresses back then in Bollywood?

Despite that she has Hey Ram (rape victim in an unglamorous look), Yuva (abused housewife in a deglam avatar), Veer-Zaara (lawyer, with no song-and-dance routine while Preity did the typical role), LCMD and Sawariya (prostitute, even acting as a second fiddle to Sonam just to play a unique role). All of that she did in the peak of her career. [Not even mentioning Black ;) ]

And recently she has the Mardaani franchise (police officer), Hichki (tourette syndrome), NOKJ (foul-mouthed journalist) and Talash (grieving mother in another deglam look). Even KANK and Bombay Talkies were slightly different roles/movies.

And she balanced these well with the typical commercial ones like HT, BnB, CC, etc. I mean if you can switch between Black and BnB in 3 months time, that should state your versatility, no?

Originally posted by: JodhaaBhai

🤔 Is it me or Saathiya, CC, Hum Tum, B&B, and KANK the same role? I don’t see any variety. All were repetitive roles and led to Rani’s decline. She declined Mira Nair’s The Namesake. Bad decision. What do you think of this?

As for Namesake, she was already signed up for KANK or TRRP and had date issues. Not something she intentionally did.

Huh? She's one of the actresses with a very diverse portfolio. Sure, she might have done some parts for BO success and money, but she also did plenty which used her acting chops.

I don't think she was repetitive. Yes, Saathiya and chalte chalte were about a married couple but they were different stories and I don't see any similarity in Rani's roles in the 2 films.

Hum Tum was again not similar to Bunty aur babli. I don't know what she was trying to play in KANK but I blame the film more than her.

She played a fiery lawyer in Veer Zaara, deaf dumb girl in Black, woman with Tourette's syndrome in Hichki, a cop in Mardaani, a reporter in No one killed Jessica, an escort in Laaga chunri mein daag and many more.

Do you see such versatility today? I think Rani tried her best to pick different roles in within the scope of what Bollywood has to offer heroines.

Her filmography is maybe best ever

She did unfortunately fall into the trap of her own image, which happens to all the greats.

From 2006's KANK when you thought of Rani you would see her crying face.. she continued this with Baabul, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Ta Ra Rum Pum. Not to mention 2005's Paheli and Mangal Pandey. By the time it was 2008, Deepika had emerged, Anushka was brand new, Sonam was making waves, Asin was fresh, Katrina was striking gold... all coincided with the decline of Rani-Preity-Ash* era.

Originally posted by: Rekha_ji

She did unfortunately fall into the trap of her own image, which happens to all the greats.

From 2006's KANK when you thought of Rani you would see her crying face.. she continued this with Baabul, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Ta Ra Rum Pum. Not to mention 2005's Paheli and Mangal Pandey. By the time it was 2008, Deepika had emerged, Anushka was brand new, Sonam was making waves, Asin was fresh, Katrina was striking gold... all coincided with the decline of Rani-Preity-Ash* era.

Yes during those couple of years I distinctly remember "Rani just cries in all her films" being a legit thing. For large portions of her movies she was straight up just crying and I think it created this "oh here we go again, Rani's crying her eyes out again *yawn*" type sentiment that everyone felt was very repetitive. After a point it became cemented in her image. People just expected that all her movies have her sobbing in them. It also didn't help that all the movies she did were mostly YRF and they kept giving her shoddy scripts.

Edit to add: Also 2007/2008 saw Kareena fly into the top spot too and Rani, unfortunately, could not reinvent and rebrand. She tried (with NOKJ I think) but by then people had moved on.

She is better than your fav Aishwarya😳

Originally posted by: JodhaaBhai

🤔 Is it me or Saathiya, CC, Hum Tum, B&B, and KANK the same role? I don’t see any variety. All were repetitive roles and led to Rani’s decline. She declined Mira Nair’s The Namesake. Bad decision. What do you think of this?

I do agree with the bold bit – turning down Mira's The Namesake was a huge mistake on Rani's part. As was rejecting Zoya's Luck by Chance. Though both Tabu and Konkona were simply outstanding in their respective roles (and I can't imagine anyone else in their place now), Rani too would have done a good job I think and more importantly these 2 films would've done wonders for her career. What I appreciate however is that Rani has never gone around giving interviews calling herself 'the first choice' of the aforementioned films; it's the directors in both these instances who have put out this information.

About being versatile – Hum Tum and Bunty Aur Babli is not the same role 😞, but yes, Rani did go through a small phase where she ended up lending similar "weepy" kind of personality to some of her roles; that phase however has now been offset by her range in Jessica, Aiyyaa, Talaash, Hichki and the recent Mardaani franchise.

Some actors only play dress ups (while delivering one note performances all the time) and think they are being versatile. But versatility (to me) is about being able to play different roles convincingly and Rani has been believable in all her films, even in the bad and the ugly ones.

Rani is never repetitive. In fact, she has done some of the most varied work for a mainstream actress. She brings such understated nuances to each role, and lives the character with an authenticty and honesty rarely seen in other mainstream actresses with the exception of Tabu, Vidya, and Kangana.

If I have to use brilliant, it will be for only 4 mainstream BW actresses -- Vidya, Rani, Tabu and Kangana(in that order)