Kajol “I Still Enjoy My Work After 25 Years”

At the outset when Kajol walks inside the special suite at Hotel J.W.Marriott, where the interviews are held to promote her latest release V.I.P 2 -Lalkar, the dubbed version of the Tamil film Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2, she tells JYOTHI VENKATESH that Tamil is like Chinese to her, though this is her second Tamil film in a span of 20 years.

Kajol, who looks as fresh as a daisy though it is 25 years sinbce she had started acting recollects that the last time she had acted in a Tamil film,it was in 1997.
“The first and last Tamil film in which I had acted was Minsara Kanavu directed by Rajeev Menon with Prabhu Dheva and Aravind Swamy in the lead opposite me. I remember a lady assistant used to sit with me for almost two hours every night to help me study my Tamil dialogues for the next morning’s shoot. I was so traumatized after I had acted in that film that I decided to stay away from anything that is not in Hindi as far as films are concerned.”

What prompted you to take up this offer then? I persist in asking her. She guffaws, “When the producer Dhanush and the director and his sister in law Soundarya came to me to narrate the subject which has been written by Dhanush himself, though I had clearly told them that if I did not like the subject, I would not agree to do the film, I was zapped by the subject. I told them that I did not want to do it in Tamil because I do not understand the language and suggested that they make it in Hindi. They persisted and told me that they would make it in Tamil since it was the sequel of the Tamil hit Velai Illa Pattadhaari and said that I could speak 50% in English and 50% in even Chinese.”

Kajol confesses that she did not play hard to get with Dhanush and Soundarya and started working on the film though she had butterflies in her stomach when she was shooting for the film on the first two days. It was only on the third day that she felt it was easy to shoot in Tamil as she “understood” the rhythm of the language, with the help of Dhanush and Soundarya. “I liked the character of the self made career oriented self confident woman Vasundhara Parameshwaran which was offered to me and I was game to do especially since I liked the story as such and could almost relate to my character in a jiffy”, exults Kajol.

I goad Kajol to tell me more about Vasundhara Parameshwaran and she gushes, “Vasundhara knows what exactly she wants in life and as a corporate tycoon, she is very innately confident that she will be able to overcome any hurdle in life as and when she comes across them at any stage in her day to day life, whereas Raghhuvaran, played by Dhanush is stubborn about what he thinks is right and comes from an entirely different world as far as his ideology is concerned and both Vasundhara and Raghuvaran are convinced that each one of them is right and it is up to the audience to decide who is right and who is wrong, when they set out to clash with one another and there is a war of words.”.

Kajol confesses that she is aware of the fact that she has infused the character of Vasundhara with a lot more life than what had been written in the script. As an actor, you choose a character with which you identify a part of your life and try to make it believable when you portray the character. Kajol adds that even her husband Ajay liked the character when she made him watch the trailer and felt that the film had commercial ingredients to click at the box office.

Kajol says that though it was Soundarya’s second film after Kochadaiyyan, she was very clear as a director about what she wanted while Dhanush is an intelligent actor and an exceptionally good writer. My job was made 20 times easier as an actress because the script was very well written. I could easily identify with Vasundhara because like me she also starts working early in life and is self made and has a lot of self confidence in her. The major difference was that though I have never been lonely as I keep everyone around me all the time, Vasundhara is very lonely since she is occupying the top post. Soundarya has brought across brilliantly that aspect of her personality.”

Kajol is happy that the Tamil film industry has always been coming up with strong women oriented films where the actresses tear their teeth into and come up with believable roles in flesh and blood so much so that there are even temples built for actresses there, unlike in Bollywood.Kajol adds, “Today the word regional has been eradicated from our dictionaries, especially since you can watch a film dubbed from Tamil or Telugu into Hindi in front of your eyes in different movie channels and unknown faces become recognizable by constant exposure. It is for the good of cinema that all of a sudden we are actually making films for the general public and the standard of expectations and the level of making films has gone up and no longer can you pass off crap as brilliant as you are exposed to International films”.

Kajol, who has completed 25 years as an actor in films right from the time she made her debut with Bekhudi says that the best thing about her is that she is still enjoying her work. “That by itself is a huge pat on my back”, she reiterates and adds that as far as film making is concerned, communication is the key element and as an actor, you have to work with other actors and not alongside other actors, because there is no use if you are not comfortable with people with whom you are working. If I was not confident that I would have a comfort level with both Dhanush and Soundaya and they would in turn safeguard me as an actor, I do not think I would have been able to work in Velai Illa Pattadhaari 2-Lalkar.”

“Honestly, I do not think that I have done much work. I am not choosy. It is just that I am lazy. I am open to good scripts. If I get a good script, the medium is immaterial and I am glad to work whether it is a film or a web series or a TV serial. I do not think working in a web series or a TV serial is to be considered as a comedown. My mother Tanuja, who is one of the most amazing actresses that I have ever come across, is acting in the serial Aarambh after proving her mettle as an actress in films. It is not in any way a comedown for an actress of her caliber at all. Good work is good work and it is just a question of whether you like what Iyou are doing. Only then will it stand out when you work in it”.

Kajol says that though her surname is Devgn and the production house had been floated by Ajay has her surname in it, she is not at all a producer and she is just working for ADF. “I am Ajay’s wife for the last eighteen years. I am just not cut out to be a producer, though I am all set to act in a film to be produced by our banner and directed by Anand Gandhi. By September this year, I think we would be able to announce the project and start work on it too.”