Kajol Chugh’s career has been a stellar one ever since she played the lead in Tahira Kashyap’s segment Quarantine Ishq in romantic anthology Feels like Ishq. Following that, she went on to work in several films like Chhatriwali. She was recently featured in Kanishk Seth’s music video Jahan Pe Dil Hai.
In an exclusive interview with News18 Showsha, Kajol got candid about working with Kanishk Seth, her upcoming project under Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal’s production house, experience with Satish Kaushik and more. Sharing that being a part of a music video was always on her bucket list, Kajol said, “I really wanted to do a music video but not the kind that goes viral on the reel. In my heart I was clear that I wanted to do a music video with Prateek Kuhad, Osho Jain kind of vibe. Last year it didn’t happen and I was fine with it. But my manifestation came true. During the auditions, they wanted cute, subtle moments of how you would react to your crush.”
She added, “For me it was cool because you get to see both her moods when she is with her friends and when she is not. She is really moving into a new space which is very relatable to me because I come from Bangalore and I moved to Mumbai. And I feel like adult friendship is something that I still struggle with. A lot of people in Mumbai have their school and college friends and they are already in their cult group. I didn’t study here. If I had studied here, it would have helped me find my own people. But now I feel like adult friendships are hard to find. So the music video really struck a chord with me because it is the person who just moved.”
Kajol revealed that she gave inputs to the director because she felt it could give more edge to the music video. The actress shared,
“He wanted both the moods to be a complete contrast. If you look at the frames also, when she is at home, she is very small and suffocating. Wherein when she was with her friends, she feels liberated. But I told him when a person moves to a new space, there is a sense of excitement. You have to show that she is happy with the new space but. I took this point from my own life and told Nilay that you know what? She can’t be fully sad. As soon as she enters the house, she has to be a bit happy. But when it dawns upon her that she is all alone. He agreed to that and was ready to incorporate my point.”
Kajol Chugh also recalled that the music video entailed her to go on an actual road trip. It helped her to break ice with everyone. She stated, “The entire cast and crew had to go on a road trip before we shot. I landed in Kochi and the first shoot was in Munnar. So it was a good six hours drive. So we had taken the plane together and we did the drive together. And once we reached there, we had to test out the Thar jeep. So before we even went on the sets, we felt like that our road trip has completed already. I remember me and the rest of the cast became good friends on the flight. We were playing the name place animal thing and other funny games. I find it very important to break ice with my co-actors in the beginning.”
Kanishk Seth had later complimented her for her work. She recounted, “He texted me that he watched it and thanked me for having so much fun while shooting because it comes through in the video. The way it has been made, it feels like a real friends group and your chemistry with your co-actors was real.”
Tahira Kashyap’s Quaranteen Crush that was released amid pandemic was a raging hit. The cute and innocent love story between a boy and a girl in the middle of the lockdown was relatable for many. Kajol shared her experience working with Tahira, “Tahira Ma’am really makes that environment for you where you feel safe to explore but also she’ll give you her vision and the boundaries and you can run in the entire direction. She lets you do that. She opens up that space. For me and my co-actor, she would talk like a millennial person and be very chilled out. But around the actors who played our parents, she would suddenly turn into a much mature person. I could notice these changes. Once she went on sets, she would be so calm. I’ve never seen a calmer director than her. She knows what she wants to get out of and she would let you do two three takes of your own version and then she’ll do her own thing.”
Post the success of Quaranteen Crush, Kajol also shared the impact it made on the viewers. Talking about some of the instances, she disclosed, “The reception was overwhelming for me and my co-actor because we started getting messages like ‘even we had this crush and we didn’t have the guts to tell them’. We were also getting these real stories in our DMs that was so weird. Because pre-covid, that disconnect happened between what movies are coming out and what your actual response was to them,” said the actress.
She also added, “It felt so surreal for us because we were hearing stories everyday.
I was getting so many DMs like ‘your smile is so good’ varying to ‘you remind me of my first crush from school’. So it was so weird for me. But I realised these are the shows that people really connect with because it’s light, 20-minute entertainment and something relates to you. I realised that’s the space where the audience is heading to. Either they want something light that they can just watch or they want something they can binge or they want to forget the entire life or either they want to relate. Plus there was a song by Ayushmann Khurrana that lifted our entire show.”
Her most recent outing was Rakul Preet Singh starrer social drama Chhatriwali. While the film generally met with positive reviews, a section were outraged with the film’s subject. Weighing her thoughts on the criticism, Kajol shared, “feel like Chatriwaali is made with the right intent. It is made with such a strong message and it is still wrapped in comedy, romance and family drama. It’s a very nice way to put it across and not be on the face preachy. There is one certain crowd that completely thinks it is against the culture. And that is the exact crowd that we want to target. For people who think it’s wrong, atleast it started a conversation about the topic. Because somebody will them jo AAP galat samajh rahe woh galat hai nahi. And then there’s another crowd that is like ‘oh yeah okay you all spoke about the topic but it’s not fully in depth. It’s not fully hitting the right point. So I feel like it’s very hard to please both of these groups.”
She further explained, “The second Group is like the same group that would watch Sex education and they’ll be like it’s great. We will take time to get there. But I think it’s a great start. Obviously there was Janhit Mein Jaari and Chatriwaali. Both female led. As soon as I read the script, I felt like it was such an Ayushmann Khurrana script just the fact that it’s a social message but in a comedy. And then after a certain point, I was like thank God it’s led by a female. The story needs to be pushed through female gaze.”
Besides Rakul Preet Singh, Chhatriwali also featured the late actor Satish Kaushik. It was on his last films. Recollecting about the time she spent had spent around him, Kajol shared, “I hope his soul rest in peace. And I am sure he is having a blast up there. Because he was such a nice, humourous man. Like all the roles he plays, after meeting him, I could see where the comedy comes from. Because he literally wanted to have fun every minute of his life. I had noticed that no matter what he was doing, he was just so chilled out. He would just call us and be like let me tell you some story. Or chalo let’s sit and do chit-chat. And we would be like, iske baad aapka imtense waala scene hai, he would be like aree aao na chill karte hai. Shots ke beech mein kya hi karna hai. He was like ‘life mein bacha hi kya hai. Chalo fun karte hai’. He would love speaking to the younger audience. We had so many actors from the local town and he would really enjoy talking to them. He was like this with the new generation. He was up to date with all the trends.”
She added, “He was so excited that I feel like he wanted to do so much more. Even for his character, he made sure that he is funny in a different way. He was so enthusiastic about his costume, makeup and every aspect. Every time on set when I was not required, I would still
stay because it was a masterclass. There was Dolly Alhuwalia, Satish Kaushik, Rajesh Tailang. I met Satish Kaushik ji at the premiere. It’s very gut-wrenching to realise that this person is not here anymore. Because he was so healthy and full of life. One can’t imagine it happened.”
Kajol Chugh then spilled the details about her upcoming independent film that would be produced by Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal’s new production house Pushing Buttons. She said, “It’s very surreal for me because my first film was with Richa Chadha. I had done Shakeela with her. As soon as I realised she is producing it, I was like I am going to have a lot of fun in this project. Because she has a strong vision and female perspective on things which is why I know she’ll choose the right script if she is producing for the first time. So I went on board. I met her and I remember her seeing me for the first time and her reaction was like ‘You are me’ because I played a younger version of her in Shakeela. So she was like ‘You are me’ and I am you’.”
The actress added, “She came and spoke to me and she and Ali Fazal are such hands on producers. They came on sets. They were there during most of the shots. They didn’t actually have to do all of that but they were just enjoying the fact that they were in control. And things are going so smoothly under their control. The character that I play is a very rebellious student and it’s a very coming of age project where you’ll see another take on female sexuality.”
Kajol Chugh finally reflected on her journey so far, “From all the projects I have picked up from Day 1, I’ve realised that I am lucky that these projects came my way. I didn’t have to choose or not choose. I just had to run with it. Because all of them had visionary directors and one thing common between all of that is they’re usually female directors or new directors who want to take a chance. And that’s when the outsiders get a small window opening into the industry. I came in with this quintessential Bollywood dream. Like when I was a kid, I would watch Koffee with Karan and proper Bollywood movies. And over the course of time when OTT came, I feel like my dreams have updated themselves and now I look forward to working in the coming of age web series, period drama, etc. I am content with everything I have done and I feel like I am going in the right direction and I feel like I am taking small baby steps towards the actual big dream.”
“There have been a lot of challenges but from the head on, I made sure I studied theatre. So I did BA in theatre from Christ University Bangalore. I was the nerdy first bencher. For me life was all about planning. Like I’ll do this and then I’ll do that. I’ll work in Bangalore and then would go to Mumbai. Because there are millions of people who come to Mumbai everyday to become actors. I was like I wanted to be taken very seriously so as soon as I finished my degree, I did my first film Shakeela which was Hindi film but shot in Bangalore. I lucked out that way. And then I came to Mumbai and I realised they treat you differently when you come with work experience because they see you professionally. That was the plan and thank God it worked out. And then uske baad plan banane ka kuch hai nahi Mumbai mein. Whatever has to happen will happen. And I have been auditioning. I have this mantra in mind that if you want a project one in a million, then I have no right to complain till I have done a million auditions. That’s what kept me going. Even today. I am looking forward to do a show like Fleabag or Marvelous Ms Maisel. Those are my dream shows and I am like scripts are getting better, everyday it’s better. We are competing with US based shows. Now the challenges are different. Like before it was like what do I do to make Karan Johar to notice me. But now it’s so much about how to invest in your art and how do you and how to showcase your and where to put it that the right person sees it. No matter what size of the role is, nowdays even character roles are written so nicely that they stand out from a show. And there is a possibility ki uss character ka spinoff ban jaaye. I feel dreams and process has changed. And now I don’t believe in planning everything and now I always go with my instincts,” she concluded.
Read all the Latest Movies News here
Comments
0 comment