Kangana on being violent

Confidence is what she wears, beauty she is born with, making her way into achieving more fame in her life. Kangana Ranaut is certainly a woman, who is an inspiration. Choosing strong characters in the movies and making a mark in the film industry speaks lot for her sense of understanding about the roles she plays in the movies. The actress who was the showstopper at ‘Blenders Pride Fashion Tour’ in Hyderabad spoke about her confidence and her upcoming movie ‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’ in a freewheeling chat.

What does pride mean to you?
Pride is something which can be negative and positive. If there is pride about one’s own existence, achievements, identity can lead to arrogance but if it leads to confidence then it is a beautiful thing. 

You fit into the characters that you play so confidently. What is the secret behind your confidence?
I think in everyone there is an awareness as an individual; confidence is a consequence of that. But confidence is also dangerous thing and this you see when so many atrocities are happening because of wrong people with confidence.

The key is to have self-awareness with confidence, then it is a good thing. One should be aware about one’s actions, what one speaks, what is the origin of one’s thought and where it comes from, tracking it down to the very psyche of it. I think south of India is culturally very strong, especially things like ‘Vedanta’. Young people must access these tools to understand. A lot of of teenagers and young people find it very hard to find confidence in themselves, but when I struggled, its Vedanta helped me a lot.

What does fashion mean to you?
Fashion on the surface seems to be about cloths. I think a person who doesn’t have a responsibility about environment and people and want to keep changing their clothes are not fashionistas. Fashion is awareness, its about how we deal with the society, environment and culture and how open are we to these things. Those who express these things through fashion and attitude are truly fashionable persons.

If you see few people who interpret traditions and cultures, they seem very dynamic and they seem exotic. It is not because suddenly they have chosen to wear Chinese or Japanese cloths, but it is about the inclusiveness with environment. And there are few people who are aware of how not to use synthetic fabric and use environment friendly fabric; they too come across as exotic.  

What do you feel comfortable wearing?
I think everything that I wear is comfortable. It needs something extraordinary to make me uncomfortable. I feel very comfortable in sarees, gowns, jeans, shorts. 

Tell us about your upcoming movie ‘Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi’?
The movie is something which revealed so many things to me when I played the character. This is the biggest budget film of a female centric movie in the history of India. I also had to direct few parts in the movie and they were also other responsibilities that came up to me.

I have left two movies to be able to work for this film. It is great, and I have never been involved so much in any movies that I worked in. If you have seen the poster it is very furious and with my action director in the movie, I have done a lot of sword training and while doing the film I have become a violent person. 

How did you learn to ride the horse?
I am a vegan and animal sensitive and when I used to ride a horse, I would feel bad to pull it as a clip is placed in its mouth. It took me lot of months and I could not do it. I only started to pull and kick the horse when my action director happened to yell at me. He taught me a few life lessons. And, my life has changed a lot after this.

What do you like about Hyderabad?
It is a beautiful city and there are a lot of my friends from the film industry, who are warm and welcoming. I have done a Telugu film here with Prabhas called ‘Ek Niranjan’ and when we were on the sets his mother used to cook biryani and send it to us. She cooks good prawn biryani and we had a good relation.