Speaking up: ‘Marriage is not the end of an actor’s career’

Kajol says extra attention should not be given to a woman’s marital status

NEW DELHI: According to Bollywood actor Kajol, marriage does not mean the end of a female actor’s career and it has been so for the longest time. The Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge star feels that the hype over this is due to extra attention being given to the marital status of women in society.

“Married actors have been working in films for a very long time. It’s just that they never came into focus and people never pointed them out and said, ‘Hey, you’re married now and you’re working’,” Kajol said in an interview. “You had Sharmila Tagore, you had my mother Tanuja, you had Saira Banu and Dimple Kapadia, and you had so many female actors who worked after they got married! In fact, they worked more after they got married.”

Kajol went on to explain the reasoning behind her stance. “Yes, there are actors who have been working pre and post marriage and nothing changed in their entire imagery. There were a lot of them who did not work at all once they got married and that is a personal choice, I believe,” she said. “And, of course, there were some who just didn’t make it and chose to use marriage as an excuse. So, I don’t think I’m a path-breaker in that sense. The spotlight may be on me right now but I am not the first to do it. I just followed in some very illustrious footsteps.”

Kajol married actor Ajay Devgn at the peak of her career, back in 1999. The couple has two children, a 13-year-old daughter named Nysa and son Yug, who is six. After the birth of her daughter in 2003, the actor did a few films such as Fanaa, U Me Aur Hum, My Name Is Khan, We Are Family and Toonpur Ka Superrhero. She was last seen opposite Shah Rukh Khan in 2015’s Dilwale.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 17^th, 2016.

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