Mumbai: In a pair of ripped denims, a tucked-in bright round neck t-shirt, hair tied in a simple and neat ponytail and a pair of white sneakers, Rani Mukerji looks far from turning 40.
As she entered a new decade of life on Wednesday, the actress, who is coming back to the big screen after a hiatus of four years with “Hichki”, says she hopes to do more movies and wants to cherish the foundation years of her two-year-old daughter Adira with husband and filmmaker Aditya Chopra “I want to treat my 40 as my 20. And I want to do a lot of work… More and more movies. I want to enjoy bringing up Adira. It is going to be the most important years of her life, so I think it’s going to be a really really nice decade,” Rani told while she was here to promote “Hichki”.
The movie, directed by Siddharth P. Malhotra, is about Naina Mathur, who has a nervous system disorder, Tourette Syndrome, that forces an individual to make involuntary repetitive movements or sounds. The film’s narrative focuses on turning disadvantages into opportunities.
In a way, it takes forward Rani’s knack for taking up roles which let the story take forefront over her stardom.
“Because for me, the story is that connect… Stories that are human, which have a strong emotional connect or the stories that connect with me or resonate with me as a person. I give more precedence to that.
“For me, it is important that the audience connects with the story or storyline, and when they connect with it, they connect with me and the character as well,” she said. In the past decade, Rani’s filmography is mostly laced by projects like “Dil Bole Hadippa!”, “No One Killed Jessica”, “Aiyyaa” and “Mardaani”, where the woman carries the most weight of the film on her shoulders — a rare but gradually visible shift in Indian cinema.
The fact that “Hichki” is actually based on the true story of a man named Brad Cohen — an American motivational speaker and educator — proves Rani’s point. She hopes the movie resonates with the audience.
Now she wants to face the camera more often.
“I was so consumed with motherhood that I thought I might just say ‘Hichki’ and that’s it. But I think I was born to be an actor and it is just something I love doing.”
Rani started her Bollywood career in 1997 with “Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat”.