Kajol on being comfortable in her own skin: ‘It took me a long time to believe I was beautiful’

On being asked how she navigated conventional stereotypes about how actors should look, Kajol said that she put those judgments in a compartment. “I thought that I was way more intelligent than all these people who were commenting on me. I know I am cool. People who want to look past that will see me and people who don’t, it’s fine,” she said, acknowledging that she was often judged for being dark and fat, and wearing spectacles.

She added, “There were a lot of things that a lot of people told me. I am still doing well, despite all that. So maybe I was doing something right in the whole baggage of things that they put on me. I couldn’t really take them that seriously.”

Opening up about marrying Ajay Devgn during the apex of her career, she said that believing an actor’s career is over after marriage is an actor’s perception of themselves. “It was not so much about everybody else’s expectations because you had Saira Banu before that, you had Sharmila Tagore, you had my mother, and you also had Nutan and Nargis, among others. It’s your perception of how you see yourself. You see yourself as a wife and, therefore, you cannot do these things or work in this profession, so it had to do more with that thinking among women actors,” Kajol said.

Balancing personal and professional lives can be challenging for many people. How did Kajol deal with it? “That’s something that translates to professionalism. My personal issues matter to me, but they shouldn’t matter to my work. That’s the level of professionalism I have. I never had to cancel a shooting because of a personal reason, maybe 1-2 days out of my career of 32 years. That’s a good balance. We have worked through fever, cough, cold, fights, etc,” she replied.

 

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She also imparted advice to young mothers and shared her take on motherhood. “My take on motherhood is that each mother is different. Each mother has her own way of raising her child. And, she has to figure that out. No mother should take advice from other mothers, including their own mothers. It’s really a mess as you have so many people telling you so many things. But, you have to do what you think is right. Stop listening to traffic and do what you think is right. Nobody else’s opinion matters because it is your responsibility. Nobody else is going to take the blame or credit for it so you have to stand up for yourself,” Kajol said.

Apart from being a phenomenal actor, Kajol is also an avid reader. On being asked which book changed her life, she said it was not a book but her fans appreciating her reading habits which did. “So many people come up to me and say, ‘Thank you for reading,’ ‘Thank you for picking up a book because it made my parents accept the fact that I read,’ etc. This is one of the best compliments I got. I read a beautiful line in a book which says, ‘When I read a book, I can be whoever the character is – black or white, young or old, animal or plant. I know exactly what that person feels like. That’s why I can see the world as it is and not only from one point of view.’ I thought that was an amazing definition.”

She went on to reveal that Sundays in her household are all about pyjamas, mutton, and coffee. “One thing I want to tick off my bucket list is travelling more with my kids. I want to go back to Egypt. I want to click a picture of me with my kids in front of the pyramids,” the actor added.

As someone who’s extremely comfortable in her skin, Kajol shared her experience and advice for women who struggle with the same. “Fake it till you believe it. I have struggled with my own skin. It took me a long time to believe I was beautiful. I thought I was cool, intelligent and attractive, but not beautiful. It was when I was 32-33 that I began to believe it. It took me a very long time to reach there. But, I never let it show,” she concluded by saying.

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