‘MASAIDI LOOKED LIKE MY GREAT GRANDMUM’
Kajol donned a Nauvari sari in a film reminding Tanuja of her grandmother
Always keen on going that extra mile with her onscreen looks, Kajol kept up with the pace in her next as well. Starring alongside husband Ajay Devgn in Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior Kajol has sported an authentic Maharashtrian look, where she is seen wearing a Nauvari sari — a style of draping using the nine yard fabric. And when she showed a photo of her look to her mother, yesteryear actor Tanuja, a rather interesting story followed.
“I wore a Nauvari sari in Tanhaji. I was so excited that I showed a photo of my look to my mum, who told me that I looked like my great grandmother (late actor Rattan Bai),” says Kajol, adding,“I never thought that I looked like her. I had posted her photo (on Instagram), and if you look at it, you’ll see that she looks nothing like me. Maybe it was the sari, the jewellery and everything put together that made me resemble her. It feels amazing to know that I look like her. It’s a way of connecting to someone I love.” Kajol says that Tanhaji was a learning ground as it challenged the actor in her. “Working in a film that’s heavy on VFX is different. In fact, it’s a little disorienting. When you’re asked to give expressions and turn right and left, you’re completely confused because there’s nothing for you to look at. There’s definitely a technique to it. But you don’t know if you’ve got that right,” she says.
The 45-year-old says that she was keen on dubbing Tanhaji in Marathi but the difficult dialect acted as a hindrance. “The characters in the Marathi trailer of Tanhaji speak in a certain dialect, and it’s not regular Marathi. To speak in that dialect along with getting the emotions and the sync right is difficult. It was virtually impossible for me to dub in that dialect unless I laboured over one scene for six to seven days. I decided to let someone more professional do it,” she says.
Ask her about Ajay and Kajol says that he has grown as a human being which translates on celluloid. “Ajay has grown amazingly as a man since the days of Ishq (1997) and Pyaar Toh Hona Hi Tha (1998) and it shows onscreen. You can see it in the characters that he plays also. There’s a beautiful, profound maturity in him.”
Kajol further says, “When his characters say something, you believe it with your heart and soul. He means what his character says and stands by it. The camera always catches you in your rawest and most honest form, whether you want it or not. It catches some essence of your personality that becomes a part of your characters onscreen.”