Queen

About the film

Queen is a 2014 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama film directed by Vikas Bahl and produced by Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, and Madhu Mantena. The film stars Kangana Ranaut in the lead role, with Lisa Haydon and Rajkummar Rao playing supporting roles. The film follows the story of Rani Mehra, a diffident Punjabi girl from New Delhi who embarks on her honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam by herself after her fiancé calls off their wedding.

Bahl co-wrote the script of Queen with Chaitally Parmar and Parveez Shaikh. Anvita Dutt Guptan wrote the dialogues for the film. Ranaut, who was encouraged by Bahl to improvise her lines during filming, is recognized as an additional dialogue writer. Amit Trivedi provided the musical score and Guptan also wrote the lyrics. Principal photography of Queen began in 2012 and took 45 days to complete. Queen received universal critical acclaim, praised for its direction, screenplay and Ranaut's titular performance, with various critics and publications citing it as the best Indian film of 2014. Made on a budget of ₹230 million (US$2.4 million), the film earned over ₹950 million (US$9.9 million) at the global box-office, emerging as a commercial success. It is one of the highest-grossing Indian films featuring a female protagonist. The film won several accolades at prominent Indian and international award ceremonies. At the 60th Filmfare Awards ceremony, the film received a leading 13 nominations and won a leading 6 awards, including Best Film, Best Director (Bahl), and Best Actress (Ranaut). At the 62nd National Film Awards ceremony, the film won the Best Hindi Film (Bahl) and Best Actress (Ranaut).

Plot

Rani Mehra (Kangana Ranaut) is a sheltered, meek, yet good-natured 24-year-old Punjabi woman from Delhi. Two days before her wedding, her fiancé Vijay Dhingra (Rajkumar Rao) tells her that he no longer wishes to marry her. He explains that his lifestyle has changed after living abroad, and Rani's conservative habits would be a wrong match for him. Stunned at the development, Rani shuts herself in her room for a day, recalling how she and Vijay met and fell in love. Wanting to control the situation, she asks her parents' permission to go alone on her pre-booked honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam. After initially hesitating, her parents agree, thinking that a vacation might cheer her up. Rani's grandmother approves of her decision and assures her that sometimes things like this occur for the better.

In Paris, Rani meets Vijayalakshmi (Lisa Haydon), a free-spirited woman of French-Spanish-Indian descent who works at the hotel in which Rani stays. Overwhelmed by the new city and having gotten into trouble twice – once with the local police and once with a robber – Rani intends to return to India. However, Vijayalakshmi helps her out and gives her a tour around the city. The two have a series of adventures, during which Rani relives the memories of Vijay patronizing her and forbidding her from dancing and drinking – which she's free to do in Paris. During one particular incident, Rani tries on what she considers to be a revealing outfit and accidentally sends a selfie of her wearing the attire to Vijay instead of Vijayalakshmi. Rani quickly realizes her mistake, but unbeknownst to her, the selfie revives Vijay's interest in Rani, and he decides to seek her out.

Eventually, the time comes for Rani to bid an emotional farewell to Vijayalakshmi and leave for Amsterdam. However, when she arrives in Amsterdam, Rani finds that her hostel room is being shared with three men: Taka from Japan, Tim from France, and Oleksander from Russia. Despite being skeptical, she soon becomes good friends with them and spends time shopping, sightseeing, visiting a sex shop, going to a church, and meeting pole dancers in a club. Rani befriends a pole dancer named Roxette/Rukhsar (Sabeeka Imam), a Pakistani girl who is the sole breadwinner for her family back in Lahore and is also a friend of Vijayalakshmi.

Production

Producer-director Vikas Bahl made his directorial debut with Chillar Party (2011), co-directed with Nitesh Tiwari, which won three National Film Awards. Since he liked the story of Queen, he decided to direct the film himself. It was eventually produced by Viacom 18 Motion Pictures and Phantom Films, which he co-owns with Anurag Kashyap and Vikram Motwane.

The lead role of Rani was earlier offered to Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra, both of whom turned down the film. As he wrote the script, he based Rani on people he had observed while growing up in Delhi. "I know life for girls is planned out for them by their families. They lose their own perspective on life and they are okay with that." In a scenario where as a girl crosses 20, her family gets busy to get her "settled", she never plans anything by herself, unless as in this case of Rani, marriage plans go awry. Thus the script was developed so that in the "first half, Rani gets over the guy, and in the second, she gets over herself." Bahl wrote the script keeping Ranaut in mind, however it was Anurag Basu who connected him with her and helped cast her in the film.

After her audition, actress Lisa Haydon, who played an Indo-French hotel staff member, Vijaylaksmi, practiced French for a month. Other actors Mish Boyko (Alexander) and Jeffery Ho (Taka) were cast after auditions in London, while Joseph Guitobh (Tim), who played Rani's third roommate, was spotted singing on a street and was asked whether he'd be interested in working in Hindi film, though he couldn't speak English.

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