‘I STAMMERED AS A CHILD’

Rani Mukerji says she has “successfully camouflaged” her stammering for 22 years; it happens when she is excited

It could well be called one of Bollywood’s best-kept secrets. Ever since her debut with Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat (1996), she has impressed audiences as well as critics with her robust and flawless performances. But did you know that Rani Mukerji used to stammer as a kid and admits that she has “successfully camouflaged it for 22 years.” The actor talks exclusively to HT about her ‘weakness’, how she overcame it and the stigma attached to it. Is it true that you have had stammering issues that no one knows about?

You know, a few days back, my team asked me, ‘people have seen many strong performances from you and that critics and audiences sometimes can’t find a flaw when you are on screen. But is there a weakness that you ever had in your career, something we haven’t seen,

which you have been able to camouflage?’ So I said, ‘Of course. I have had many weaknesses and the most prominent of them all was that I used to stammer. My mother’s family has had that problem. My mum also stammers and so my brother got it from her. And that’s how you also got it…

My brother is five years elder to me. So, I think while growing up, since I used to see [him] talk like that, I kind of developed a stutter and a stammer. Whatever you hear the most in a house becomes a part of you, especially when you are growing up. So yes, I used to stammer as a kid but when I became an actor I had to overcome that because you can’t stammer while you are saying your lines and performing on screen. But no one ever had any inkling about it.

Yes, for 22 years, I have somehow successfully camouflaged it, so nobody has really come to know that I stammer. Even my team told me that they had no idea about it despite them having known me for so many years. So, I was like, ‘probably, I have worked on it or found a way of not stammering [in front of others] or showing the other person that I do.’ So, they were shocked and said that people should know about it, and I was fine with it.

How did you manage to overcome it?

I don’t know the exact process but I think it’s all about finding a way of dealing with your weakness and turning that into your strength. In fact, when people talk about the way I deliver my dialogues, I am happy because I wanted to make that my strong point. So, I always wanted my dialogue delivery to be absolutely crystal clear and I worked on it in a way that it came naturally to me, because as a person, I am always very positive. If there is sadness in my life, I try to overlook that with something happier.

Now, you also have your daughter, Adira by your side? Yes! In fact, spending time with my daughter and seeing her happy gave me a lot of strength to come out of the depression that I got into because of my father passing away recently. As for my stammering, I was very conscious of my stammering very early on, so I made sure that I worked towards my lines in such a way that I knew them thoroughly and I would know where to take the pauses exactly to be able to camouflage it.