When Kajol first met Niranjan Iyengar, she found him judgemental and didn't want him anywhere near her set. On the other hand, Iyengar found her to be too loud and brash and didn't want to be anywhere near her sets. But, here they are years later and now the foes have become best friends. And he is the first person to extract from Kajol's mouth that Devgn was her relationship guru back in the day.
During her appearance on "Look Who's Talking with Niranjan" on 10 August, the film journalist-turned-script writer asked Kajol if she remembers the exact moment when she knew Devgn was the one, to which the actress said: "I remember him standing in front of me for a shot and I went 'Oh my god, this man is going to play a very, very crucial role in my life!'"
Of course, she had met the "Singham Returns" actor before that shot, but she always thought of him to be too quiet. "He sits in one corner and smokes like a chimney and doesn't speak to anybody. What kind of a man is he?"
They however did not start going out for another two years, as they were both dating other people. During this time of friendship, Devgn was her confidant. When she had problems with her boyfriend, she took it to him, and he would offer her sagely advice "sitting there like this big guruji and babaji". This was the time she started thinking of him as "really, really stable and solid", but the nickname "babaji" was also sealed on Devgn for good.
Their conversations became something more, first friendship and then something more than friendship. While Devgn is yet to tell her what attracted him to her, Kajol lets him off the hook because according to her what he feels, he expresses through his actions, not his words.
He is not a romantic in the traditional sense. He wouldn't get a rose on rose day and anniversaries have to be announced three days in advance, but he always has her back. "I never feel like I am floundering anywhere, unsafe anywhere, because I know that he is always behind me standing there," she revealed. "He backs me 100 percent and I'm always behind him as well."
She says that every one of her achievements - be it in films, marriage or motherhood- are results of her hard work. It took "a lot of time, effort, patience, on my part and hard work to keep them as beautiful as they are."
She also spoke of how her daughter Nysa, like her when she was younger, doesn't like to watch her mother's films and asks her to do more fun ones like "Golmaal" ( Devgn's film). She also said that if she doesn't say "no" to her children, no one else will and she is consciously a very strict mother.
"If there are any values to be inculcated, I have to be the one to give them to you... Stardom is all well and good outside the house. Inside the house, you are yourself, without the mask," she explains to Nysa.
Her daughters are her teachers too and have made her more tolerant, she claims. Iyengar had said long back that Kajol hated 98 percent of the people she met and could barely stand the rest two percent. She now claims that she only hates about 95-96 percent, all owing to her daughters.
It was also revealed that Kajol turned down a chance to work with the legendary Mani Ratnam (Dil Se), so she could work on Karan Johar's "Kuch Kuch Hota Hai." She said that even though she would love to work with Ratnam, if she had to do it all over again, she'd make the same choice. Because, working in movies would mean nothing, if she can't work with her friends, the people she loves. She left with the promise of returning to the big screen in 2015.
Watch the interview below:
