'Simran': Kangana Ranaut's next film about Indian American 'Bandit Bombshell'

Kangana Ranaut has had a long run in the movies, starting her career in the Hindi film industry by auditioning for a few parts before she landed the lead role in Anurag Basu's film Gangster, to be produced by Mahesh Bhatt under his banner Vishesh Films. She was only 18. Fresh off the figurative boat from Manali, Himachal Pradesh. Frustrated from the stereotypical day to day life of a small town, Kangana did something very few women from small towns did; she dared to dream of a bigger future and left in pursuit of it to Delhi, where she did some modelling work and theatre, and then eventually Mumbai.

Since her debut, Kangana has had quite a few hits and misses and in the past five years, has emerged as one of the highest paid actresses in Bollywood. Wherever Ms. Ranaut went, she broke norms. Kangana has not only been constantly embroiled in controversies, but she has also not shied away from talking openly and voicing her opinions on topics usually Hindi movie stars refuse to acknowledge. While she does have her critics, there are millions more people who admire her nonchalance and her determination to rise above the nonsense thrown at her from the world. From her open feud with the Roshan family, or her calling Karan Johar out repeatedly for promoting Nepotism or some has-beens maligning her name by calling her a witch who does black magic(?), Kangana has risen from the ashes like a phoenix repeatedly and has refused to slow or back down.

The trailer for her latest film Simran was released on August 8th on youtube and was well received by viewers, garnering almost 10 million views since then. Kangana plays a young Indian-American women who develops a gambling problem and then gets on the wrong side of the law. Watch the trailer below.

Based on the true-story of Sandeep Kaur, a Punjabi girl who moved with her family to the United States at the age of 7 and was incarcerated in the state of California when she was 24 in 2014. Born on 11 November 1989 in Chandigarh, Punjab, Kaur and her brother, Jatinder along with their parents moved to San Jose, California to a community that was filled with Indians at the time. But all Sandeep Kaur felt was a feeling she did not belong. She always felt like an outsider. While her parents moved to America with a thought to better their lives, they still had a simple lifestyle with her parents living frugally and not adapting completely to the westernised life. Sandeep wore boys clothes and faced a lot of bullying from her peers at school . And after 9/11, the bullying became more cruel and more frequent. She and her brother tried to escape their tormenters by skipping school. When they were caught by the strict parents, both were shipped to a boarding school. At home they were punished for not doing their chores or misbehaving. The children were isolated from the world by banning mobile phones, television and friends. They were made to stand with chairs up in their arms for hours at end or were beaten if they refused to go to school or do their homework.

By age 15, Kaur graduated early from High School and by 19 she became a licensed nurse in a nearby hospital. Kaur was earning $6,000 a month by working multiple jobs and soon had some money saved up. In 2008, when the American economy was on an all-time low, Kaur started investing heavily in the stock market. Soon as the economy picked up, Kaur had made a killing. She had over $200,000 saved up in her bank. From all those years of living on her mom's standards, Kaur finally tasted freedom.

She soon discovered Las Vegas, the city of sin. It all started on her 21st birthday, which was the legal drinking age, she and her cousin, Amandeep Kaur, 2 years elder to Sandeep, planned a trip to Vegas, lying to their parents. Sandeep and her sister soon discovered the glamorous and flashy designer stores Vegas is famous for and soon transformed. Dressed in Gucci dresses, the sisters trotted down to the nearest casino and bar and started gambling. With a streak of beginners luck, Kaur had won $4,000 in the first few hours of playing and became hooked. She just couldn't stay away. After flying back and forth to vegas a few times, each with a different set of people, the hotel and casion Sandeep frequented started treating her like royalty and giving her a free stay and additional perks. Sandeep finally felt like she belonged.

She then discovered Baccarat, a popular but simple card game played in casinos, where the players bet on which of the two hands added up closest to nine. It was more like a lottery. Sandeep soon started playing with high-rollers and turned her Bellagio penthouse suite into a private club with endless whiskey flowing. She garnered a reputation of a fearless but fortunate player. She played till she made $10,000 a night and then spend it all in the designer stores. She played next to celebrities, professional gamblers as well as politicians. She was only 25.

She became addicted to the fast paced lifestyle of the city known for its nightlife. Soon her luck seemed to have run out. in 2011, she confessed to her sister, Amandeep that she had lost $60,000. She had lost it all on just 3 rounds on the table. Her sister knew she had a problem.

On one of her trips to the city, a man approached her. Somebody who was watching her closely and impressed with her gambling. He was a loan shark. The man, who was not a member of the casino staff, offered to get her some money. Thinking that she could win with the money the man gave her, she saw her problems disappearing. She asked for $20,000 and the loan shark gave it to her on a high interest. Two men handed her the cash in the parking garage and she promised to come back with her money in a few hours. She sat at the table for 16 hours straight trying to win back enough money to pay back the shark and then enough to continue playing. She had almost doubled the money when she lost it all on one hand.

Kaur panicked and fled Las Vegas and the loan sharks, planning to give up gambling completely. Soon there was a warrant out for her arrest for failing to make some payments to the casino. At the same time her mom discovered the truth after seeing her empty bank account. By this time, her parents had divorced and Kaurs mother began to arrange her marriage. She stayed away for a while from Vegas but soon started flying to the city again and gambling away her new husbands money. Her past started creeping up to her when she noticed someone following her in a black car. It turned out to be two men working for the man who had loaned her the $20,000 in Vegas. They demanded $35,000 and two days to get it. Desperate, Kaur rang up everyone she could to lend her money. When she told the men no one would lend her the money, they threatened her to either pay or work for them. And Kaur knew working for them meant something illegal. Then something happened that would change Sandeep Kaur's whole life.

The men suggested that she rob a bank to pay them back. Sandeep didn't think the idea was totally ridiculous. She knew she had no other choice but to get the money through deceit. The thought of telling the police did come to her mind but soon decided to go ahead with the robberies.

Wearing a wig, Kaur escaped from her first robbery near Los Angeles and soon met up with her creditors where they demanded for more money. They gave her a week to come up with another $20,000. She had about $5,000 when she decided to try her luck one last time at a hand of baccarat. She had turned that $5,000 to $10,000 in sometime when her game was interrupted by a few men in a suit who told her she had a warrant out for her arrest. Luckily for her it turned out to be for the faulty payments she had made towards the casino and not for the robbery which she had committed a few days earlier. Her sister helped her with the bail money of $15,000 and soon she was out on the streets plotting her next robbery after contemplating suicide for a while.

After doing some research, Kaur had found her next target. The Wells-Fargo branch of Lake Havasu City, about 50 miles from the Nevada state line, in Arizona. On July 8th 2014, she walked into the bank at 5.30pm when she handed a note to an employee that said she had a bomb and wanted $100,000 and that 5 men were making her do this against her will. After the cashier handed over the cash, she ran towards her car which she had parked a few blocks away. After driving for a while, on counting the money she realised the cash she had just stolen was only $2,000.

While the Kaur cousins met for dinner on 10th July 2014, the Lake Havasu Police department was already investigating the robbery and comparing notes with other police departments. They were closing in on the Bombshell Bandit. Amandeep was astonished at how much weight her sister had lost and became worried for her. Sandeep assured her she was okay and soon began plotting another robbery, her third.

Kaur circled in on San Diego for her next robbery, an area notorious for robberies. On 14th July 2014, wearing a colourful scarf, Sandeep entered Comerica Bank, in San Diego's Midway District. She again handed over a note to the cashier which threatened a bomb. Kaur got away with $8,000 that day and met up with her creditors again. This time they gave her an ultimatum. If she doesn't come up with the money by 1st August, she had to work for them.

On 31st July, Sandeep drove to Utah and walked into the US Bank in St. George wearing a hoodie, her usual sunglasses and a surgical staff. The staff at the counter initially thought she was a germaphobe but soon realised what was really happening when Kaur handed over a note that said: "You have two minutes to give me 50K in cash or i will shoot you. This is not a joke." Kaur had her hand in the pockets of the jacket she was wearing indicating that it was a gun. The manager handed over the cash to her and the moment she left to run towards her car, she called 911, identifying her car as a silver Nissan.

Nearby cops soon started following her on the freeway and Kaur was on the run on full speed on the freeway, entering another state. Sandeep Kaur would drive through three states that night with each state she crossed, two more cop cars got on her tail. Kaur knew it was over but didn't stop. She soon entered Nevada followed by many cop cars and TV and News Helicopters. The chase finally ended when one of the officers deployed spike strips to bust her tires. After the silver Nissan came to a halt, officers approached the car with their guns aimed at her. "Just shoot me', she said.

After refusing to come out from the car for two hours, the cops lied to her that she was being taken to the hospital and not jail. She had already messaged her sister about the whole ordeal.

Sandeep was soon arrested and transported to a cell in the Clark County Detention Center. She also tried to slit her wrists but her roommate complained to the authorities and she was moved to the psych cell where inmates who pose a threat to other inmates or themselves are put without any interaction with anyone.

Kaur faced upto 20 years in prison and $250,000 in fines. Her extended family and friends of the family distanced themselves from Sandeep when the news of her arrest and the details of the life she led for the last two years had come out. Her mother collapsed when she heard about her daughters arrest. Not one member of the family attended Sandeep's trial. The judge sentenced Sandeep to 66 months in jail keeping in mind she was highly educated and smart and fell into the problematic lifestyle that she led. He also ordered her to payback every dime she ever stole. Kaur wiped her eyes and thanked the judge saying her arrest was a relief.

Sandeep Kaur is still in prison and will be eligible for release post 2020. She vows to help others in similar situation once she's out.

Kangana Ranaut's film 'Simran', directed by Hansal Mehta, loosely based on Sandeep Kaur's life will release worldwide on 15th September, 2017.

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