Looking fitter and prettier than ever before, Kajol is a burst of positivity, happiness and lots of laughs when you catch up with her. Even as she continues to pick and choose work with a lot of care, she comes across as a contented person who loves her life just the way it is.
How do you stay so fit, and pretty? You are almost age proof!
Wow, thanks so much! (laughs). I work out a lot, I spend a lot of time in the gym. There’s no easy way to do it. I wouldn't say that I am naturally like this and that I have the genes for it, I do have the genes for it! (laughs) Uhh..I work out really hard, and am very good at my diet, and that has worked for me.
You've become a lot more conscious about your diet and fitness after you quit acting in films full time, after you actively stopped acting.
I think it takes time. It takes effort and its difficult to manage it and start a new habit in a full, busy life. It’s very very difficult to start and focus on anything that’s good for you (laughs) Stuff that’s bad for you, like icecream! It’s such a bad habit. But it’s easy to develop, like you can even buy a refrigerator and keep that in the car to keep that extra habit going! But, you won’t buy a low fat version because you will have to travel 20 minutes out of your way to buy it. So, bad habits come easily, but good habits have to be built over a period of time.
There were recent reports that you are contemplating taking up television, and that you have signed up for a show. Are you thinking of a TV stint?
You know, I am open to everything, I am listening to everybody, I am meeting everybody and I am talking to everybody. I have not confirmed anything yet. I am not the kind of person to hide anything, so if I do anything in future, I will just go and tell everyone “Oh I am doing this now!” Right now, I have not signed anything.
There were also reports that you were charging a lot for TV offers. Can I call that speculative?
Exactly! I mean I don’t really need it, do I! (Pauses). As far as monies go, it should be what you are worth. I really don’t want to discuss it right now, as to where the pounds and pennies are going.
Each time you pick a film, there’s a lot of buzz in casting you, and the film usually goes on to do quite well. Your box office value, therefore, remains, high. Is that why you choose a project with so much care, or is it because you don’t really need to do all the work that comes your way.
I think it’s a little bit of both. I don’t have to do everything that comes my way. I have never had to do everything that comes my way so it’s been pretty good that way, I have been blessed, touchwood! I think it also has to be something that interests me. I have to be interested in it, even if something fantastic comes my way and I am Not interested in it, it will Not happen. It will just Not happen. Because, I believe that when you’re shooting for something, if you are working on something for a hundred days, you need to love that absolutely, completely without reservation. You need to be there for that project a 100 percent if not 300 percent! And that passion needs to carry you through, through those 100 days. Yes on the last 5 days of any film we want to kill each other, and that’s a norm on almost all film sets, you don’t want to see each other’s faces for the next 6 months! (laughs) But I think, during that film, while you are making it, you are making something fabulous, and you are making something better than you did before.
Shifting focus to advertisements and endorsements, you are signed up for quite a few brands and they are all decent products. That’s also probably because you have a great connect with everyday Indian women, as brands tend to pick faces based on connect with the masses, rather than star power. Do you find this a comfortable space - ads and endorsements?
I’ve been quite comfortable doing what I am doing in advertising, but I also have to believe in WHAT I am doing. So I am very, very picky about my ads as well. Because I have to be, I feel that moral responsibility that if I am standing up and telling you to buy something, it bloody well better be good! Because my face is behind it! So I don’t take it for granted, that you see me endorsing something and it turns out be a bad product. I don’t want you to put your money where my mouth is, basically, if I am not sure of the product. I am very careful about it. I have probably turned down 90 percent of the offers that have come my way, because those are things I just would not endorse. I would not endorse alcohol, for I don’t believe in it. I don’t believe it does anything good for you, besides let you loosen a tongue for a bit, that’s about it!
Being a mother, would you choose to endorse a cola or fast food brand? Or is that a tricky question?
That’s a tricky question, really, it is! Not for any other reason, but being a mom, it would really have to depend- on what kind of a company, everything. It depends on everything.
But how do your kids see you on TV, how do they react to it?
My son is absolutely star struck by seeing me on TV, he will just go “Mama you’re there! And Mama you’re here!” he hasn't got the concept of how people get into TV till now.
A slightly uncomfortable question actually, there were reports that you have undergone some skin melanin surgery, a form of whitening surgery…
No. I have NOT undergone any skin whitening surgery. I have just stayed out of the sun! For 10 years of my life, I was working all the time under the sun, which is why I got tanned! And now I am not working in the sun anymore (laughs). So I've got untanned! Its not a skin whitening surgery, it’s a stay at home surgery (laughs out loud)…
You know, that is linked to a larger question. Why would a person of your stature, with your success, and stardom that you chose to move away from…
Kajol interrupts: I’ve already gotten that! Why would I lighten my skin now?
Isn't that related to the fair versus dark debate? What’s your take on that? Is beauty in India still conventionally related to fair skin?
I think beauty is in every woman, I think all women are beautiful, I think Indian women are the Most Beautiful women in the world… I really have seen the women of the world. Whether you take the English, or the American, or the African, or the Japanese, or the Chinese, I truly believe that Indian women, or women (the features that we have, the skin that we have), is the Perfect amalgamation of every other race put together. We really are the perfect people. So, I truly believe that actually we don’t really need all this stuff.
But, we are also the people who take the least care of it. We are so comfortable and confident with our own beauty, that we truly don’t believe we don’t need to do it. Till comes a much later stage, when we are looking at ourselves and thinking like, “how does that forty year old look like that, and how do I look like this? “ It comes to that, really. The reason why these creams are also selling is because they are catering to your vanity. They are trying to teach you that listen, just take care of your skin. Yes, they are selling it via a medium of maybe, skin lightening or skin darkening, or whatever. But it’s actually just to take care of your skin!
You are going to home production on Ajay….
Yes, I am starting a home production which should hopefully start by the end of this year, touchwood.
At the peak of your film career, you used to do a lot of reading. Do you still read a lot now? Do you have any favourite books currently?
I read like a maniac, and I read on the kindle (app). I am grateful for this app (laughs) Currently, I am not reading any great books really. But the pleasure that you get out of reading a book, cant be matched by a kindle. Somehow the patience you develop of a slow read with a book, doesn't happen with a kindle. You are scrolling and thinking, ‘get to the point! Get to the point!’. The smell of it, the feel of a new book…
Is there a book that you would like to make into a film and star in?
I never think of books like that. My books are my sanctuary, my holy place, they are my meditation, they are my time away from time, so I never connect them to my work. I don’t know if that’s right or wrong frankly because I am so connected to my work, but I don’t.
I have to ask you this- the Chopras live so close by and Rani tied the knot with Aditya Chopra. Did you get to know of the wedding at all?
It was a very, very private ceremony, I don’t think anybody knew about it. But, uh, congrats to them. I think great, perfect, about time! (Laughs)
Lastly, how do you spend time with your kids? Are you planning a summer vacation?
Summer vacation starts for them, actually, at the end of this month. I think, spending time with your kids, when you do things with them, is great, but I think just sitting down and just doing the regular things makes a big difference. To my daughter, I think that makes the biggest difference, when I sit down with her, and we are doing nothing. We are just sitting and chatting, and discussing family, and school work, and it just happens. That talk will just happen. As long as you’re there for it, when she wants to say something, and you’re there, it will just happen. And I think that’s what keeps you connected to your kids.
CREDITS: PINKVILLA PHOTO CREDIT: KAJOL FOR ASIA SPA
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