She reduced her film appearances when she became a mother because she didn’t believe in leaving her young children at home while she worked.
Now, after bringing her magic to the big screen again with Dilwale, actress Kajol is ready to take on more work.
“I hope I will be seen on screen more... I’d like to work more now. I took a break right after My Name Is Khan (2010) because my son was born and then he was still very young. Now my son is five years old,” Kajol said.
“I will be starting a film in mid-2016, but no, I am not planning to do three films a year like Shah Rukh Khan in any way. I can’t work as hard as him,” added the actress, 41.
Kajol and Ajay Devgn, who married in 1999, have two children: daughter Nysa and son Yug.
After the birth of their daughter in 2003, she did the films Fanaa, U Me Aur Hum, My Name Is Khan, We Are Family and Toonpur Ka Superhero. After Yug’s birth, Kajol decided she would devote her time to motherhood.
In a previous interview, she confessed that the only reason she gave up films was her children.
“I have not given birth to them to just dump them and go off to work. I am not that kind of a person,” Kajol said then.
But when Dilwale came her way, Kajol said it was her daughter who urged her to return to her career.
“I honestly think it’s very educative for children to have working parents, and to have a working mother mostly, because that’s where the influence comes on the girl child.
“When I was a child, I did resent sometimes that my mother went to work, and I used to tell her, ‘Mum, why can’t you be like other mothers who are at home and cooking?’ She used to be like ‘No, I have to work. I need to work’.”
Kajol, a Padma Shri award (fourth highest civilian award in India) winner, is the daughter of veteran actress Tanuja.
“At that point in time, maybe I felt a resentment towards her work, but when I started working, I realised that the work ethic I have, the way I work, the amount of hard work that I did was only because I had seen my mother do that all my life,” Kajol added.
“So, I feel that my daughter hopefully will understand that when she sees her mother go for work... when she grows up, she will realise that it’s important for her to work as well, for her own independence and development,” the actress said.
Kajol believes that women should also contribute to the family earnings.
“In whatever area they choose, women should work. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be about going out of the house and working. But the work ethic has to be understood... that it’s not only a man’s job to be the breadwinner for the family. That’s where our women’s equality has to start.”
