Born to late producer-director Shomu Mukherjee and actress Tanuja, Kajol made her acting debut when she was just 17 in the 1992 film Bekhudi.
The actress, whose first film was a massive commercial failure and was labelled ‘dark and fat’ when she entered the film industry, proved her critics wrong and became a superstar. In her recent interview with The Lallantop, Kajol revealed that her father wanted to name her Mercedes after the German luxury car brand, but her mother stopped him from doing so. During the same conversation, the actress shared how she had initially rejected to play a rape victim in the 1998 film Dushman but agreed after her discussion with director Tanuja Chandra and producer Pooja Bhatt.
Kajol on why she rejected Dushman earlier
The Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge actress said, “It was a very difficult role. It was a subject matter. I had refused the film. Pooja Bhatt had approached me for the film because she was producing it, she wanted me to do the film. But I was like, I love the script. I love the idea, but I don’t want to portray any kind of molestation or rape on screen. Not because of anything else but as an actor when you are acting in that emotion, you feel all those things. As an actor, I don’t need to do that. I can show my acting prowess in other things.”
Kajol on how Pooja Bhatt and Tanuja Chandra convinced her for Dushman
“Then Tanuja and Pooja made me understand. They said, Don’t worry about it. We are women, we understand, and we will figure this out, and we will shoot with a body double and we will do this and that, and we will not do anything that you are uncomfortable with at any point, so yes, that’s how Dushman came to be”, Kajol concluded.
More about Dushman
In the psychological thriller, Kajol played the double role of twin sisters Sonia and Naina. After a sadistic killer and rapist Gokul Pandit, played by Ashutosh Rana in a terrifying performance for which he also won Filmfare Award for Best Villain, rapes and kills Sonia, Naina vows to take revenge. She is helped in her journey by a blind military veteran Suraj Singh Rathod, played by Sanjay Dutt. Made in just Rs 4 crore, Dushman went on to become a critical and commercial success as it earned over Rs 10 crore.