by One of the big winners at the Bafta TV Awards on Sunday night was presenter Anita Rani, although she didn’t go home with a trophy.
Instead, Rani hit the red carpet thanks to a bold, see-through outfit that got everyone talking – and speculating about whether the popular Rani is on track to become the BBC’s next star .
After all, as she declared that Iris Dea Tí this month: “I’m right at the beginning of my second chapter and there’s so much more I want to do.”
Rani, 46, is already a staple on the broadcaster’s schedule as host of Women’s Hour on Radio Four and the rural affairs program on BBC One Countryfile. But Rani looked very different: definitely no mud or wellies involved.
She strutted her stuff on the Baftas red carpet in a daring floor-length pearl gown by Australian designer Rebecca Vallance. The sheer material showed off Rani’s trim figure, her modesty protected by a nude bodysuit underneath, and she accessorized it with Sole Bliss platform heels, asymmetrical earrings and glamorous hair extensions.
Said Rani’s stylist, Krishan Parmar The Telegraph that they chose the dress because it shows confidence but also vulnerability. It shows that “Anita is really feeling herself and comfortable in her own skin.”
Caroline Leaper, The Telegraph’s explains the senior fashion editor: “It’s a great example of someone using fashion as a tool to make a big personal statement. The dress is so far from the everyday press that people have seen her on screen – this is glamorous and fun, more like something we would see on Rita Ora at the Met Gala. She’s obviously feeling confident, and she wants us all to know that.”
Rani said Good House magazine about embracing her independence after her 2023 split from Bhupinder Rehal, her husband of 14 years. She has moved back into her old flat in London and a friend is turning it into a “dream house in Paris”.
That means “beautiful cream drapes and white floorboards,” Rani revealed. “My bedroom is black and pink and I turned my spare room into a dressing room. Just talking about it makes me happy! It’s my little sanctuary.”
The presenter admitted she was in “uncharted territory”. She continued: “I’m a single Asian woman with no kids, and you know what? I love it! I have a blank slate in front of me, and that feels really good.”
Rani also worries about her experience of writing her first novel. Baby runs it is, likewise, about a British-Axis woman figuring out who she is. Rani’s main character, Baby, is pressured by 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 left, and how her family left. she is affected by trauma.
Rani explained that she is angry, looking back, about growing up in a Punjabi culture where “men and women were treated very differently, and I could see the inequality everywhere around me. But when you have something to fight against, it really empowers you. It’s like a fire inside that drives you.”
Rani sounds confident, and is like a woman on a mission. Since the split of her marriage, while promoting her book, she has been a much more visible presence, doing candid interviews and stylish photography.
She deserves praise for her courage and openness when talking about how she suffered a miscarriage. “The vulnerability scared the s— out of me, but it was liberating to share my personal story and see the response,” she said last year.
She also said that she is much better at self-care and asking how she wants to live her life, rather than “trying to please everyone”.
That builds on the wisdom of her best-selling memoir of 2022 The Right Kind of Girlin which Rani recalls how she learned to bridge the gap between her two cultures while growing up in Yorkshire in the 1980s.
On the one hand she was called racial slurs – but she also struggled in her traditional home, in a family that believed in arranged marriages. Her parents ran a clothing factory and wanted their daughter to study law. She was a rebellious teenager, and sometimes very unhappy: she even self-harmed.
But she is proud to be a visible role model for women of colour, and one who is now part of a number of British institutions. In addition to presenting on Countryfile and Women’s Hourshe was competing on Strictly Come Dancing in 2015, reaching the semi-finals.
Finally, Rani embraced the sequins and skimpy outfits on Strictly, although she noted that the first outfit she tried on involved a “side-on display” – which was “revealing and scary.”
Since then she has learned how to use style strategically, for example wearing a sari while covering the Platinum Jubilee for the BBC. “For many years I was ashamed,” she said, explaining how she felt she had to tone down her Asian side “because nobody wants to deal with that. But now I think it’s a gift to be able to move between two cultures. With the Jubilee, I thought ‘When else will I have a moment like this?’”
Rani also got into a fight when she did an interview for Channel 4’s Britain Beach while wearing a bathing suit. “I spent my whole life worrying about my body, never getting into a bikini in my 20s and 30s – I had this dysmorphia of thinking I didn’t look good enough,” she said. “Now I think ‘Sod it.'”
Will that confidence lead to a great new chapter in Rani’s career? She definitely has big plans. ‘I want to take Woman’s Hour out on the road,’ she said Good House, before adding, tellingly, “and I want to host my own talk show. I want to make my book into a movie or TV show, and I want to continue to change the landscape for the next generation of Asian women.’
She was thrilled to be asked to host an ITV game show Fastest finger first in 2022, a spin-off Who wants to be a millionaire., because, she said, there are stereotypes about Asian women being “square and smart”. When asked if she had ambitions to present the news, “I actively said ‘No, my passion is music and entertainment,'” Rani explained.
Recently she has appeared as a celebrity on Michael Macintyre’s The Wheel and guest co-host on No pointand hosted a spin-off Netflix web series Under the Crown.
BBC cameras picked her up several times during Sunday’s Baftas, suggesting the corporation recognizes her potential as a rising star. Will she be the next queen of Saturday night TV?
It certainly is possible. Tess Daly and Claudia Winkleman are currently a passionate duo Strictlybut as the series celebrates its 20th anniversary tomorrow [15th May]could this eventually encourage them to move on to pastures new?
You wouldn’t blame Rani for having her eye on the top glitterball prize, even though she hosted the show’s live stage tour in 2017 (stepping in for Mel Giedroyc), and she wasn’t necessarily a natural in the role.
She is an excellent journalist, but she would like to loosen up more and take her comedic chops for light entertainment hosting. And she would need to think outside the box if she is to avoid the fate of Lily Allen and Davina McCall, whose attempts at chat shows were quickly consigned to the TV dustbin.
However, it has proven to be a very safe pair of hands for high-profile occasions such as royal events. She could also be suitable for a program like The Pianowhich Winkleman should be weary of, especially if she can channel the warmth and emotional honesty she’s shown recently in her writing and personal interviews.
Rani has certainly paid her dues, and is now able to represent the establishment of the BBC and showcase its embrace of more progressive values – whether through her work, her eye-catching fashions, or both.
