No one considers Kangana Ranaut a rising Bollywood star but filmmakers immediately think of her when looking for raw talent. Kangana, 21, stormed into Bollywood with a standout debut performance as Simran in Anurag Basu’s Gangster (2006) , a performance that won her recognition at Filmfare, Zee Cine, Stardust, Star Screen, IIFA, AIFA and GIFA awards.There has been no looking back since then for Kangna. She went on to carve her own unique space in Bollywood with follow up performances in films like Woh Lamhe (2006), Life in a… Metro (2007) and her latest hit Fashion (2008) .Despite her obvious talent, Kangana has unfortunately been in the news for all the wrong reasons.”I was very young when I joined the industry,” she tells TOI. “I could not differentiate between right and wrong. There were people who helped me and were really sweet to me. But soon, those people started to think that they owned me. I paid off all my debts and I’m free now - free of all that, and like I said, more mature.”The “people who helped” her include married Bollywood actor Aditya Pancholi, whose rumored intimacy with Kangana served as tabloid fodder for many months.Kangana has now started life afresh and is seeing Shekhar Suman’s son Adhyayan.”Yes, I have been dating him for the last eight months and that’s all I’ll tell you,” she says.”I want this to be personal. I hope everyone respects that.”We do and wish the couple all the best. The future, of course, holds much more for Kangana than just Adhyayan. Her upcoming films include:

Mohit Suri’s Raaz - The Mystery Continues with co-stars Adhyayan Suman and Emraan Hashmi
Anurag Basu’s Kites with co-stars Hrithik Roshan and Barbara Mori.Sameer Karnik’s Roshan with co-stars Bobby Deol, Dwij Yadav and Atul Agnihotri.Kangana sums up her situation saying, “I’m very calm and at peace now. Things are different, I’m more confident, know what I’m talking about, have learnt a lot… I’ve matured,” she says.