The usual choreography of a professional shoot felt a little different this time. The photo and video teams were busy on the monitors checking test shots, stylists with trays of jewellery lined up, making decisions at a speed only they seemed capable of, and I was in the middle of it all, fidgeting with my cue cards and going over my questions. The entire set paused when we heard the uninhibited Kajol laugh; it was impossible not to. There was something so infectious about it that, for a moment, I suspect all of us wanted to abandon the shoot, pull up a chair and simply have a conversation with her.
But we had a cover to shoot. So off we went to our first frame, with the magnificent Fairmont Udaipur Palace behind her and the Aravalli breeze undulating her hair. At one point, the team even wondered whether we really needed the blower. And that set the tone for the day, where we shot different looks at different corners of the property, with plenty of moving around and, in between, lots of chit-chat with Kajol.
We have all seen Kajol on screen. For many, she remains Anjali from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham – funny, bubbly, and energetic. Let me tell you that the real Kajol is not too far from the reel Kajol. Later, she tells us that Anjali is the character she has felt closest to.
I begin by telling her that we have watched her bloom over the years, yet from the outside she has always seemed deeply rooted in who she truly is. It makes for an intriguing place to begin a conversation with Kajol.
She says, “A lot of me has remained completely unchanged.” And I hope that it doesn't change because those are all the good parts of me that I have sought to save and not change. The part of me that is still a child and enjoys cartoons, the part of me that is still a foodie, the part of me that still enjoys life in every which way. So yes, those parts of me have not changed and hopefully will not change.”
My next question naturally, is how she protected that sense of self while growing and evolving, both personally and professionally. She smiles, “With a lot of effort.”
“It does take effort to be yourself in a world that expects you to live by a standard which they have created. When you don't come up to those standards, everybody seems to have an opinion on it,” she notes.
“There are lots of opinions floating around as to who you should be, how your hair should be, how your clothes should be, what you should say, what you shouldn't say and where you should be, even for that matter. So, I do my best to have partial blindness in that direction.”
Kajol comes from one of India’s most iconic film families, with some of the country’s greatest stars, namely mother Tanuja, maternal aunt Nutan, and maternal grandmother Shobhana Samarth. In addition, she is married to one of Bollywood’s biggest superstars, Ajay Devgn. I ask her how these legacies have shaped her journey over the years.
"Gently, I would say,” says the DDLJ star. “When I first joined the film industry, there was this huge tag that I had to live up to. Whether it was my mother, my grandmother or my aunt, all three of them actually. But because they were my mother, my grandmother and my aunt, I could see them as people. And that in itself took away the grandeur of it, maybe.”
She remembers being on sets and having people come up to her to talk about her mother, grandmother and aunt. “Honestly, it never really hit me till much, much later; till I had gotten into the film industry and had done three, four, five films. That's when things actually hit me as to how big they were and how well they were thought of and respected in every which way.”
“Whenever I meet these people and they bring it up, there is a sense of pride, yes, but there is a sense of family as well that comes through. So, yes, with a lot of love,” she adds.
Three decades into the industry, there seems to be no slowing down for Kajol. When I ask what her mantra has been for keeping going, the answer is candid: “I don't have a mantra. I don't think that you can have a mantra for it. I think it's just about one step forward every day and keep doing something or the other.”
Is Kajol someone who has a vision board, or does she prefer to take each day as it comes, in both professional and personal walks of life? “I think man proposes and God disposes. So that's been my belief all through my life.” While she has tried to plan things around, as everybody does, “at the end of the day, you have to give way and give room for what your instinct tells you and where life takes you.”
Towards the end of our conversation, I quizzed her, after all these years and achievements, what's left on her list. What comes next? “I don't know what's left on my list, honestly. I like to be taken by surprise. So hopefully there'll be a lot more things on my list that I don't even know about,” she opines. “And eventually, you'll find out as time goes on, because I think everybody knows exactly what I've been up to for the last 30, God knows how many years,” and truly, we all have.
Photographer : Ajay Kadam
Styled by: Ruhani Singh
Assisted by: Khushi Bhatia
Hair by: Sangeeta Hegde
Makeup by: Sonam Sagar from The Artist Project