A Star Hits Her Stride

SITTING ON THE terrace of a village head’s house overlooking the valley, Kangana Ranaut digs her fingers into the rice with sweet-and-sour pumpkin curry, the first dish of the Mandyali Dhaam, a five-course Mandi version of the traditional Himachali meal. Other dishes—rajma, dal, kadhi, and a juicy sweet made of lentils and sugar syrup—follow. “Bahut swadisht (very tasty),” she tells her hosts, the family of the uppradhan (deputy village head) Ghanshyam Thakur, who requests her to adopt the Jai Devi vil­lage in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi, if she is elected from the Lok Sabha constituency.

Just hours before lunch, the road in front of his house is being paved, as the actor-turned-politician, along with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, arrives in the village for her third public meeting since morning. She promises the villagers that she will work “sincerely” for Mandi and the state while addressing them near the ancient Kamaksha temple from which the village draws its name. “The prime minister takes a direct report from everyone. Won’t he seek one of me, too?” she asks.

Showering praise on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Jai Ram Thakur, she asks, her voice getting fiercer, “Is there any taint on them? They are from poor families. They cannot deprive the poor. They have seen poverty,” and draws equations with her own humble background, recalling how her mother tended to cows at the crack of dawn. Wearing a sky blue dupatta with a printed white salwar kameez, her hair put up in a bun, and beige sneakers, the small-town girl who has returned home to fight the Lok Sabha election confines herself to the script—the Modi government’s welfare schemes, policies, the Ram temple, Article 370, Women’s Reservation Bill—often breaking into the local Mandiyali language. Ranaut, 37, lashes out at her opponent, Congress’ Mandi candidate and PWD Minister Vikramaditya Singh, 34, the son of the state’s longest serving Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, charging his family with nepotism, saying it has “stuck to the chair as though there is no one else in the state.”

BJP’s candidate for Mandi, she is travelling 400-500km every day in her SUV from one village to another, wearing a Himachali cap, shedding the Bollywood glamour, as she steps into the role of ‘Himachal ki beti’ (Himachal Pradesh’s daughter). This time it is not on celluloid but in the heat, snow and dust of the campaign trail, in the largest of the four Lok Sabha constitu­encies in the state, stretching from its highest reaches to the foothills. This, she says, is the difference between reel life and real life. “Whatever it may be, and even if I am running a fever, I have to go… When we go up, there is snow in some places and when we come down to lower Himachal, it’s hot or it’s raining,” she says, answering questions, her tone softer than when she is on the dais.

A political greenhorn, Ranaut faces a formidable rival in Singh, an MLA from Shimla Rural, whose mother Pratibha Singh won from Mandi Lok Sabha in a bypoll in 2021 following the death of BJP MP Ram Swaroop Sharma. That was the third time she had won the seat. “Kangana has a chance because she is Modiji’s candidate. But it’s not going to be an easy fight,” says Dilip Singh, as he fries samosas in Jai Devi village. Narendra Kumar, who runs a mobile shop, praises her as an actor, but says a lot of development took place during Virbhadra Singh’s tenure. He adds that before this election, the Bollywood star had forgotten that this was her home. Vikki Salwani, who runs a clothes store, criti­cises the way she speaks, referring to her calling Congress leader Rahul Gandhi “bada Pappu” and Vikramaditya Singh “chhota Pappu”, swipes that her opponent countered by calling her a comedian. She has made statements like “India got independence in 2014,” which gave Singh a chance to castigate her, saying she has insulted freedom fighters. But Sarita, a young woman who runs a hosiery shop, likes her “openness and spontaneity” saying, “Jo man mein hai bol detin hain (She says what’s on her mind).”

Ranaut is aware that in the rough and tumble ofpolitics, thisisnotjustanotherrole. Foranactor who has played late leaders like Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, she “understands the difficul­ties a woman faces in a man’s world”. Address­ing villagers at Mahadev, named after an old Shiv temple there, at another public meeting, again mostly comprising women, she accuses Pratibha Singh of making derogatory com­ments about her when she said people go to Ranaut’s rallies just to see her. “What if people say such things about her daughter who is also campaigning? How will she feel?” As the sun starts to set, she has another rally to attend be­fore she reaches Mandi where she is scheduled to hold a press conference.

“Fifty-fifty,” is the standard response of peo­ple in the busy Mandi town when asked about her chances in the June 1 election. They say that if Modi wins another term, then Ranaut would be able to deliver and get work done, but at the same time there is a local connect with the family of Virbhadra Singh who was known as Raja Sahib and belonged to the royal family of the erstwhile princely state of Bushahr. A Congress stronghold in the past, Mandi went into BJP’s hands when Maheshwar Singh, from the Kullu royal family, won it in 1989 and then again in 1998 and 1999, after which it was wrested by the Singh family and held till the Modi wave of 2014 and 2019 when BJP’s Sharma swept the seat. People say that BJP has a hold over the lower parts of the constituency, which include Mandi, while Congress holds sway over the upper reaches like Rampur, Kinnaur, Manali and Lahaul and Spiti. Of the 17 Assembly segments including Mandi, Congress holds only four.

I am not in a place where my popularity is of any consequence. I am only connecting as ‘Himachal ki beti’. They know I have done something, but they don’t know what, says Kanagana Ranaut, BJP candidate for Mandi

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The BJP leadership’s decision to field Ranaut did not initially go down well with Maheshwar Singh. She is unruffled by it, or by allegations that she has been parachuted into the Lok Sabha polls, describing her contribution like that of the squirrel in the epic Ramayana which starts throwing pebbles into the sea when the Ram Setu was being built. “I may not have been a party worker but I have fought in my own way.” She underscores her affinity to BJP, aligning herself with its Hindutva ideology, expressing her views on banning Pakistani artists in India, or alleging how difficult it is to keep a “Sanatani mindset in a Khan-domi­nated industry.”

The lawns of the Raj Mahal hotel, which was a palace owned by the royal family of Mandi, are being spruced up for the media interaction. Ranaut changes into a plain beige cotton sari with a red border and another Himachali cap, but still wears the sneakers. Replying to a question on why she joined politics, she says, “I won’t say I joined politics. I will say people gave me a chance. I was chosen maybe because of my nationalist vision, the roles I played showing women’s empowerment, or for opposing item numbers.” Born in Bhambla village of Sarkaghat, in Mandi, her vision for the con­stituency includes an airport, trains, a film city, a university and a Kendriya Vidyalaya.

As she finishes with the press conference, her team managers prepare for separate interviews to the media. It is then, off stage, that she opens up, baring her vulnerability and candour, taking every question patiently. She continues with the interviews late into the night, showing no haste to retire for the day. When asked about the bigger test of popularity—actor or politician— she says that in Himachal most people have not seen her films and have no connection with her as a film star. “If you go to the higher reaches it’s much less. My grandmother has never seen a film in her whole life. I am not in a place where my popularity is of any consequence, whereas when I go as a star campaigner to some other state, say Rajasthan, there is an image of me as ‘Jhansi ki Rani’ or they know me as ‘Queen’. I can use my dia­logues there and be one of my characters. Here, I have not said a single dialogue till now. I am only connecting as ‘Himachal ki beti’. They know I have done something, but they don’t know exactly what that is.”

Several people, particularly the young, have seen her films, but say that the votes in her support will be for Modi more than for her star appeal. “She has made it in Bollywood on her own. She will pick up the threads in politics too,” says Rakesh Thakur, who is sipping tea with some others at a mattress shop in Sarkaghat. Nekram Shastri, a retired shastri (scholar), laments about job­lessness and the lack of educational and health facilities, ask­ing what is the point of an AIIMS in Bilaspur when there is no MD nearby. He hopes that if Ranaut gets elected, she may draw Modi’s attention to the place, anticipating that he will return as prime minister.

Nearby, at an office of the Sainik Kalyan Sanyojak, five re­tired personnel of the armed forces are angry with the Agnipath scheme under which young recruits, called Agniveers, can be recruited into military service for four years, and “anomalies” in the one rank, one pension scheme. They ask what Ranaut did for Mandi when disaster struck the state during the floods last year. Yet, for several elderly people in the town she is like a daughter who can convey their woes to Modi.

A few kilometres down the road is her home in Bhambla where her parents reside. A new wing has been added to the old single-sto­rey house where Ranaut was born. On the wall of the new structure is a poster of Modi. Sitting in the front yard, along with some others, her father Amardeep Singh Ranaut recalls that she took part in cultural programmes at school. Af­ter studying till Class 10 at the local Hill View Public School, she did her Plus-2 in Chandigarh where she won a competition and became ambassador for Ayur, a herbal beauty products brand. She then joined Asha Chandra’s dancing school. At 17, she got a role in Anurag Basu’s Gangster: A Love Story. “Her mother and I both had a lot of inhibitions. We are villagers and did not have anyone in the film industry. When Gangster became a hit, she did not look back, and we also stopped resisting her foray into cinema.” The journey into politics had its genesis in the demo­lition of illegal alterations made to her Pali Hill bungalow in Mumbai, following a war of words between her and the ruling Shiv Sena in 2020, triggered by her comparing Mumbai with Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

The prime minister recently held a rally in Mandi seeking support for Ranaut, saying that she reflects the “aspirations of the nation’s daughters”, showing they can succeed in any field. Her opponent, Singh, is playing down her political foray, saying she will return to Mumbai after the results.

Ranaut is candid in her response when asked if she will con­tinue in politics irrespective of the results. “It can’t be irrespective of the result. Like I said, it’s not a personal ambition and it should not be. I don’t want to be Rahul Gandhi that irrespective of the result I am here to hang in there. If you want me, I am here for you; but if not, I have better things to do. I will carry on. I will not force myself.” Admitting that she feels lost at times, wondering what she is doing, she adds that she then thinks of a future when she could do something tangible to change people’s lives.

Of the many characters she has played on film, which one does she identify with most? “Every film is like a child. Difficult to say which I identify with most. As Indira Gandhi’s character, I am playing a 60-year-old woman. It was so gratifying because she was a grey character, hugely flawed. So was Tanu (in Tanu Weds Manu). I like grey, flawed characters as much as I like the Rani in Queen, who is such a likeable person. Indira Gandhi is not a likeable person, yet you do not hate them. You love them.”

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Amita Shah