Rani Mukerji the Bollywood actress.

Rani Mukerji (Bengali: রাণী মুখার্জী) born on 21 March 1978, is an Indian film actress who works in Hindi movies.

Making her acting debut with Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat (1997), Mukerji had her first commercial success with Karan Johar's romance Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), her biggest commercial success so far, and won a Filmfare Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance in the film. She later starred in several films, most of which fared below expectations, but in 2002 she re-invented her image with the critically acclaimed drama Saathiya, for which she received numerous awards and nominations.

In 2004, her performances in the hit Hum Tum and the critically acclaimed Yuva earned her the Best Actress and the Best Supporting Actress awards at the Filmfare ceremony, making her the first actress to win two major awards in the same year. She later received unanimous praise for her portrayal of a blind, deaf and mute woman in Black (2005), for which she garnered numerous major awards. Mukerji has since established herself as a leading actress of Hindi cinema.

She followed her career by signing on several projects. Unfortunately, most of them did not do well at the box office. Although Badal was one of the highest grossing films of 2000, she still did not succeed to establish her status in the industry at that point of time.

In 2001, Mukerji starred in Abbas Mustan's romantic drama Chori Chori Chupke Chupke, co-starring Salman Khan and Preity Zinta. The film was released after a one-year delay, and was one of the first Bollywood movies to handle the issue of surrogate childbirth. Mukerji's role was that of Priya Malhotra, a woman who is unable to conceive after a miscarriage, thus hires a surrogate mother. Rediff.com wrote, "Rani Mukherji is handicapped with a role that doesn't give her much scope besides weeping and sobbing. To her credit, she manages to hold her own even while playing a stereotypical sacrificing bhartiya nari."

In 2002, Mukerji played the lead role in Kunal Kohli's romance Mujhse Dosti Karoge!, co-starring alongside Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor. Although the movie did not do well in India, it generated great business overseas, and marked her entry into India's biggest production house: Yash Raj Films. Later that year, Mukerji starred in Shaad Ali's critically acclaimed Saathiya opposite Vivek Oberoi. Essaying the role of Suhani Sharma, a medical student who deals with the tensions and discontent of being married at a young age, she won a Filmfare Critics Award for Best Performance, and among several other nominations, received her first Best Actress nomination at the Filmfare. Manish Gajjar from BBC noted, "...Rani Mukerjee...plays the character of a middle class girl with great conviction."