Who deserved the best actress for 2004?

Who in your opinion deserved the best actress award that year?

If I have to rank:

1. Shilpa Shetty, PM***

2. Urmilla, EHT

3. Kareena, Dev

4. Rani, HT / PZ, VZ

5. Ash, Raincoat

I love Hum Tum and Rani in it, but I have to admit it was an undeserving win, especially in such a strong year. Either Shilpa Shetty in PM or Urmilla in EHT should have won the award. Preity in VZ was also on her level, maybe even marginally better. Ash in Raincoat was also a strong contender. Kareena was not even nominated for Dev which I think is one of her career best performance.

I was a Rani fan back then and remembered cheering as she took the trophy for HT, but looking back I've to admit it was a very strong year for actresses and her performance did not deserve an award. She deserved the supporting ones was Yuva/VZ though

Rani was the most deserving for the best actress awards👍🏼 

But other two who were also good:

Urmila in Ek Hasina Thi (She won for Bhoot anyways)

Priyanka in Aitraaz (Won in supporting/negative actress)

Urmila deserved it for Ek Haseena Thi. She was absolutely mind-blowing in it.

I agree, Rani should have won the best supporting actress instead of the best actress. Either for Yuva or Veer Zaara. She was very good in both.

I guess I'm not filmy enough to know all these abbreviations 

TABU deserved it for Maqbool 

1. Tabu - Maqbool

2. Urmila Matondkar - Ek Hasina Thi

3. Shilpa Shetty - Phir Milenge

4. Aishwarya Rai - Raincoat

5. Preity Zinta - Veer-Zaara

6. Rani Mukerji - Hum Tum

7. Tabu - Meenaxi

8. Priyanka Chopra - Aitraaz

9. Kareena Kapoor - Chameli

10. Raveena Tandon - Yeh Lamhe Judaai Ke

Rani is the strongest actress in that list. She deserved the award for Hum Tum. But Tabu is even better than Rani and Tabu deserved to win for Maqbool.

Aishwarya Rai for Raincoat. She was the top favourite to win the National Award that year.