She is a three-time National Award-winning actress, who has earned critical acclaim and box office credibility. But before Kangana Ranaut embarked on her journey to become Hindi cinema's Queen, she was a geeky teenager fascinated by Ghalib's work. At the launch of her school friend's collection of poems this week in Mumbai, the actress reminisced how her friendship with writer Bondina Elangbam was built over their shared love for the Urdu poet.

“Growing up, I was addicted to Ghalib's poetry and ghazals. Bondina can't speak Hindi and couldn't understand intense Urdu words. Neither could I, but my nanaji would speak Urdu. I would ask him the meaning and then explain them to Bondina. We used to sit outside our mess in Chandigarh and I used to explain Ghalib's poetry to her - that's where we bonded.“

Interestingly, Kangana recalls how one of her school friends had predicted her stardom. “I was this geeky student, who was not very popular. One day, while I was enjoying noodles in the hostel, a friend called Damini suddenly turned to me and said, 'When you become a star, I will interview you'. I didn't understand why she said that. It was so uncanny, I get goosebumps when I think of it now. I was pursuing science then, and I wanted to be a doctor. I had a little keeda of modelling, though I didn't look anything like a model,“ she says.