Early Life and Background
Mukerji was born in Mumbai on 21 March 1978 to a film-oriented family of Bengali origin. Her father, Ram Mukherjee, is a retired director and one of the founders of Filmalaya Studios while her mother, Krishna, was a playback singer. Her brother, Raja Mukherjee, is a film producer turned director. Her maternal aunt, Debashree Roy, is a Bengali film actress and her cousin, Kajol, is a popular Bollywood actress. Another cousin of hers, Ayan Mukerji is the writer and director of Wake Up Sid (2009). As part of a tradition, the Mukherjee family celebrates the festival of Durga Puja at Santacruz every year. Mukerji, being a religious person, takes part in the festivities with her entire family.
Mukerji is a trained Odissi dancer and began learning the dance in the tenth grade. She was schooled at Maneckji Cooper High School in Juhu, and graduated from SNDT Women's University in the field of Home Science. Despite her family background, Mukerji was never interested in becoming an actress. In 1994, director Salim Khan approached her to be a part of his directorial, Aa Gale Lag Jaa. Her father was against her working in films and hence, she turned down the offer. However, she finally decided to take up acting on an experimental basis, on the insistence of her mother.
Read more about this topic: Rani Mukerji
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or background:
“Foolish prater, What dost thou
So early at my window do?
Cruel bird, thou’st ta’en away
A dream out of my arms to-day;
A dream that ne’er must equall’d be
By all that waking eyes may see.
Thou this damage to repair
Nothing half so sweet and fair,
Nothing half so good, canst bring,
Tho’ men say thou bring’st the Spring.”
—Abraham Cowley (1618–1667)
“The deadly monotony of Christian country life where there are no beggars to feed, no drunkards to credit, which are among the moral duties of Christians in cities, leads as naturally to the outvent of what Methodists call “revivals” as did the backslidings of the people in those days.”
—Corra May Harris (1869–1935)
“They were more than hostile. In the first place, I was a south Georgian and I was looked upon as a fiscal conservative, and the Atlanta newspapers quite erroneously, because they didn’t know anything about me or my background here in Plains, decided that I was also a racial conservative.”
—Jimmy Carter (James Earl Carter, Jr.)