Queen is a 2013 Hindi-language coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Vikas Bahl and produced by Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane and Vikas Bahl under the banner of Phantom Films, in association with Viacom18 Motion Pictures. The film stars Kangana Ranaut in the title role of Rani Mehra, a sheltered young woman from Delhi who embarks on her honeymoon alone to Paris and Amsterdam after her wedding is called off. Lisa Haydon and Rajkummar Rao appear in significant supporting roles.
Released on 7 March 2014, the film became a critical and commercial success and is regarded as a landmark in Hindi cinema for its female-led narrative, its understated humour, and Ranaut's performance. It won several major honours, including the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi and the Filmfare Award for Best Film.
| Title | Queen |
|---|---|
| Director | Vikas Bahl |
| Producers | Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane, Vikas Bahl |
| Production companies | Phantom Films, Viacom18 Motion Pictures |
| Writers | Vikas Bahl, Chaitally Parmar, Parveez Shaikh, Anvita Dutt (dialogue), Kangana Ranaut (additional dialogue) |
| Lead cast | Kangana Ranaut, Rajkummar Rao, Lisa Haydon |
| Music | Amit Trivedi |
| Lyrics | Anvita Dutt, Raghu Nath |
| Cinematography | Bobby Singh, Siddharth Diwan |
| Editor | Abhijit Kokate, Anurag Kashyap |
| Language | Hindi |
| Country | India |
| Release date | 7 March 2014 |
| Genre | Comedy-drama, coming-of-age |
Rani Mehra, a soft-spoken Punjabi girl from Rajouri Garden in Delhi, is to marry Vijay, but he calls off the wedding a day before the ceremony. Devastated, she decides to travel alone on her pre-booked honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam. In Paris she befriends Vijayalakshmi, a free-spirited hotel staffer of Indian-French-Spanish heritage. In Amsterdam she shares a hostel room with three male travellers — a Russian, a Frenchman and a Japanese — and gradually discovers her independence, confidence and capacity for self-determination. When Vijay returns and seeks reconciliation, Rani has changed enough to make her own choice.
The film was developed by Vikas Bahl, who had previously worked at UTV before co-founding Phantom Films in 2011 with Kashyap, Motwane and Madhu Mantena. Principal photography was carried out in Delhi, Paris and Amsterdam. Kangana Ranaut, who plays the title role, also contributed to the dialogue, lending the character a colloquial Delhi-Punjabi cadence. The film was made on a modest budget compared with mainstream Hindi star vehicles of the period.
The soundtrack was composed by Amit Trivedi with lyrics by Anvita Dutt and Raghu Nath. Songs such as "London Thumakda", "Hungama Ho Gaya" (a reworking of the 1970s Asha Bhosle number from Anhonee), "Badra Bahaar", "Jugni" and "Harjaiyaan" became popular and were widely used at weddings and on radio. The album was released by T-Series.
Queen was theatrically released in India on 7 March 2014, timed close to International Women's Day. It received widespread critical acclaim, with reviewers praising the screenplay, direction, music and especially Ranaut's performance. The film opened to modest collections but, sustained by positive word of mouth, ran successfully for several weeks and emerged as a sleeper hit, eventually grossing well above its production cost in India and overseas markets.
Queen is often cited as part of a wave of mid-2010s Hindi films that placed self-discovery and female agency at the centre of the narrative without relying on a traditional romantic resolution. Its commercial success demonstrated that a female-led, mid-budget film with a relatively unfamiliar supporting cast could anchor a wide theatrical release. The film also strengthened the standing of Phantom Films as a producer of distinctive, director-driven cinema, and was a turning point in Kangana Ranaut's career.
The film's rights were acquired for remakes in several South Indian languages, leading to: