One of the big winners at Sunday night’s Bafta TV Awards was presenter Anita Rani, although she didn’t take home the trophy.
Instead, Rani triumphed on the red carpet thanks to the daring sheer dress that had everyone talking and speculating whether the popular Rani was on her way to becoming the next BBC star.
After all, as he stated Good Housekeeping Magazine this month: “I’m just at the beginning of my second chapter and there’s so much more I want to do.”
Rani, 46, is already a key part of the broadcaster’s schedule as the show’s host. Women’s Hour on Radio Four and BBC One’s rural affairs programme. Country file. But this was a very different disguise of the Rani: there was absolutely no mud or boots.
She showed off on the Baftas red carpet in her bold, floor-length, pearl-studded dress by Australian designer Rebecca Vallance. The sheer material showed off Rani’s shapely figure, with her modesty protected by the nude dress underneath, which she accessorised with Sole Bliss platform heels, asymmetrical earrings and eye-catching hair extensions.
Rani’s stylist Krishan Parmar said: Telegram She said they chose the dress because it reflects confidence but also vulnerability. This shows that “Anita truly feels herself and is comfortable in her own skin.”
Caroline Leaper, Telegraph’s “This is a perfect example of someone using fashion as a tool to make a big personal statement,” the senior fashion editor explains. The dress is so far from the everyday wardrobe people will see her on screen, which is dazzling and fun, looking more like something we’d see on Rita Ora at the Met Gala. “He’s clearly feeling confident and wants us all to know it.”
Rani told Good Housekeeping Magazine, which embraced her independence following her separation from her husband of 14 years, Bhupinder Rehal, in 2023. He’s moved back into his old flat in London and is turning it into what a friend describes as his “dream house in Paris.”
Rani explained that this meant “beautiful cream curtains and white floorboards.” “My bedroom is dark pink and I turned my spare room into a dressing room. Just talking about it makes me happy! “This is my little sanctuary.”
The presenter admitted that he was in “uncharted territory”. She continued: “I’m a childless, single, Asian woman, and you know what? I love it! “I have a blank page in front of me and it feels really good.”
Rani also seems excited about the experience of writing her first novel. Baby Makes Runner Similarly, it follows a British-Asian woman finding out who she is. Rani’s protagonist, Baby, faces pressure from her mother and aunts to marry and have children, but when she discovers secret love letters between her grandfather and a mysterious woman, she travels to India to find out why her family split up and what their generation is like. The trauma affects him.
Looking back, Rani explained that she was angry about growing up in a Punjabi culture where men and women were “treated very differently and I could see inequality everywhere around me.” But when you have something to fight for, it really makes you stronger. It’s like a fire inside you that drives you.”
Rani certainly sounds and looks like a woman on a mission. Since their marriage breakup, she has become a much more visible presence, doing candid interviews and stylish photo shoots while promoting her book.
She was praised for her courage and candor when describing how she suffered a miscarriage. “Vulnerability scared me, but sharing my personal story and seeing the reaction was liberating,” she said last year.
She added that she has gotten much better at self-care and asking how she wants to live her life instead of “trying to please everyone.”
It’s based on the wisdom of her 2022 bestselling memoir The Right Type of GirlRani describes how she learned to navigate her two cultures while growing up in Yorkshire in the 1980s.
On the one hand, she was being called racial slurs, but she was also struggling in her traditional home, a family that believed in arranged marriages. Her family ran a clothing factory and wanted their daughter to study law. He was a rebellious youth and sometimes deeply unhappy; He even harmed himself.
But she is now proud to be a visible role model for women of color and to be part of many British institutions. In addition to presenting Country file And Women’s Hourcompeted Definitely Come Dancing He reached the semi-finals in 2015.
Rani ultimately embraced the sequined, skin-tight outfits on Strictly, but said the first outfit she tried featured her “showing side ass” and it was “really revealing and terrifying”.
She has since learned to use the style strategically, such as wearing a sari while covering the Platinum Jubilee for the BBC. “I’ve felt shame over the years,” he said, explaining that he felt compelled to tone down his Asian side, “because no one wants to deal with that. But now I think it’s a gift to be able to switch between two cultures. With Jubilee, I’m like, ‘When else am I going to have a moment like this?’ I thought.”
Rani also made a noise in her interview with Channel 4. britain from the beach while wearing a swimming costume. “I’ve spent my whole life worrying about my body, never wearing a bikini in my 20s and 30s – I had this dysmorphia of thinking I didn’t look good enough,” she recalled. “Now I’m thinking, ‘Put it in.'”
Will this confidence open a new and sparkling page in Rani’s career? He definitely has big plans. ‘I want to take Woman’s Hour on the road,’ he said Good Housekeeping, he said pointedly, before adding: “And I want to host my own talk show. ‘I want to turn my book into a movie or a TV show, and I really want to continue changing the landscape for the next generation of Asian women.’
She was thrilled to be asked to host ITV’s game show Fastest Finger First A spinoff in 2022 Who wants to be a millionaire?Because, she said, there are stereotypes that Asian women are “decent and smart.” “I actively said, ‘No, my passion is music and entertainment,'” Rani explained when asked if she had a goal of presenting the news.
She recently famously appeared on Michael Macintyre’s show. Wheel and a guest co-host Meaninglessand hosted Netflix’s spin-off web series Under the Crown.
BBC cameras picked him up several times during Sunday’s Bafta, showing the company recognizes his potential as a rising star. Will she be the next queen of Saturday night television?
It’s definitely possible. Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are the two current presenting duos. Definitelybut as the series celebrates its 20th anniversary tomorrow [15th May]Could this finally inspire them to move on to pastures new?
Although she hosted the live stage tour of the show in 2017 (replacing Mel Giedroyc), you can’t blame Rani for having her sights set on the ultimate glitterball prize, and she wasn’t exactly a natural in the role.
He’s an excellent journalist but he needs to unleash more and hone his comic skills as a light entertainment presenter. And he’ll have to think outside the box if he’s to avoid the fate of Lily Allen and Davina McCall, whose ventures into chat shows were quickly consigned to the telly dustbin.
But they have proven to be an extremely safe pair for high-profile events such as royal events. It may also be suitable for a program like: PianoIf Winkleman tires of this, especially if he can channel the warmth and emotional candor he’s shown recently in his writings and personal interviews.
Rani has certainly done her bit and is now well placed to both represent the BBC and show that she embraces more progressive values – whether through her work, her eye-catching fashion or both.