Kajol’s range of talent can be known from the fact that she is the 1st female actor to win the Filmfare best performance award in a negative role. In fact it was also the 1st time a female actor was nominated for best villain. This was in Gupt, a movie starring Bobby Deol, Manisha Koirala and Kajol, in which Kajol won the award for her role of Isha, a psychopath serial killer and obsessive lover.
Today, on 5th August, on her birthday let us reminiscence some trivia on a few of her memorable movies.
Happy Birthday Kajol: From Baazigar To My Name Is Khan – A Nostalgic Ride!
Abbas-Mustan’s crime thriller Baazigar was Kajol’s 1st hit though her debut was Bekhudi. Sridevi was originally supposed to play a double role but Abbas-Mustan thought that audience may not accept a newcomer (SRK) killing an established heroine. Kajol and Shilpa Shetty got their break- and never looked back. Nadeem-Shrawan were the original music directors but they left on an ego issue as they wanted Kajol to be out which the Producers did not agree to. Annu Malik replaced them. The song Baazigar-0-Baazigar which turned out to be a craze was originally composed by Nadeem Shrawan as Jaadugar-O-Jaadugar. Interestingly, Akshay Kumar and Salman Khan were offered SRK’s role but thought it to be too negative.
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Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge gave us the romance of Raj ( SRK) and Simran, played by Kajol. Initially SRK was hesitant about DDLJ as he thought it was a girlish role but later said “This will be my Deevaar, it will make me”. DDLJ earned Kajol her 1st Best actress award. The title of the movie was given by Kirron Kher and the name Raj was given by Aditya Chopra after Raj Kapoor. Karan Johar was on screen for the 1st time in this movie.
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai saw Kajol in her memorable role as Anjali. She shone both as the tomboy and the beautiful lady. This is the only movie which won all the 4 acting awards with Best actor for SRK, best actress for Kajol, Best supporting actor for Salman and Best supporting actress for Rani. Top fashion designer Manish Malhotra had a cameo as a student in this movie. Karan Johar later said that he had visualised SRK as Archie, Rani as Veronica and Kajol as Betty and Anupam Kher as Principal Weatherbee from the famous Archie series.
Fanaa means destroyed in Love. This Aamir-Kajol starrer was loosely inspired from Ken Follett’s Eye of the needle. Aamir plays a Kashmiri insurgent but interestingly the movie was not shot in Kashmir but in Poland as Kajol was concerned about safety.
Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (K3G) has one of the best ever star casts of all time. After all who would imagine Amitabh, SRK, Hrithik, jaya Bhaduri, Kajol and Kareena in the same movie. Kajol and SRK’S song “Suraj hua maddham” is one of their most romantic songs ever. Kajol’s role was highly appreciated. Karan says when he met her he told her that while it would break his heart if she refused to do the film , it would not affect their friendship. She hugged him, with tears rolling down her eyes and said she would say yes/no after consulting her husband, Ajay Devgn. 5 days later, to Karan’s relief, the answer was yes.
My Name is Khan saw Kajol and SRK coming back together after K3G. This was the 1st Indian movie to gross 100 crores overseas. James Cameron praised it as his favorite Bollywood movie. Christopher B Duncan, the actor who played Barrack obama was chosen by Karan Johar as he had portrayed Obama in Jay Leno’s show.
Kajol has so many good movies that choosing a few was really difficult. I am sure you agree.
