Kajol Biography – An Indian Actress Honored by “Padma Shri”

Kajol Devgan (born 5 August 1974), known mononymously as Kajol, is an Indian actress. Described in the media as one of the most successful actresses of Hindi cinema, she is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Filmfare Awards, among which she shares the record for most Best Actress wins with her late aunt Nutan. In 2011, she was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India.

The daughter of Tanuja and Shomu Mukherjee, Kajol made her acting debut with Bekhudi (1992) while still in school. She subsequently quit her studies and had commercial successes in Baazigar (1993), opposite Shah Rukh Khan, and Yeh Dillagi (1994). Starring roles with Khan in the top-grossing romances Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998) established her as a leading star in the 1990s and earned her two Filmfare Awards for Best Actress. She also gained a critical appreciation for playing a psychopathic killer in Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997) and an avenger in Dushman (1998).

After starring in the family drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham… (2001), which won her a third Filmfare Award, Kajol took a sabbatical from full-time acting and worked infrequently over the next decades. She won two more Best Actress awards at Filmfare for starring in the romantic thriller Fanaa (2006) and the drama My Name Is Khan (2010). Her highest-grossing releases came with the comedy Dilwale (2015) and the period film Tanhaji (2020).

In addition to acting in films, Kajol is a social activist and is noted for her work with widows and children. She has featured as a talent judge for the reality show Rock-N-Roll Family in 2008, and holds a managerial position at Devgn Entertainment and Software Ltd. Kajol has been married to the actor and filmmaker Ajay Devgn, with whom she has two children, since 1999.

Kajol Biography
Born	Kajol Mukherjee 5 August 1974 (age 48) Bombay, Maharashtra, India
Other names	Kajol Devgan
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1992–present
Works	Full list
Spouse	Ajay Devgn (m. 1999)​
Parents	Shomu Mukherjee Tanuja
Family	Mukherjee-Samarth family
Awards	Full list
Honours	Padma Shri (2011)
Signature

Early life and background (Kajol Biography)

Kajol was born in Bombay (present-day Mumbai) on 5 August 1974. Her mother, Tanuja, is an actress, while her father Shomu Mukherjee was a film director and producer. Her younger sister, Tanishaa, is also an actress. Her maternal aunt was actress Nutan and her maternal grandmother, Shobhna Samarth, and great-grandmother, Rattan Bai, were both involved in Hindi cinema. Her paternal uncles, Joy Mukherjee and Deb Mukherjee are film producers, while her paternal and maternal grandfathers, Sashadhar Mukherjee and Kumarsen Samarth, respectively, were filmmakers. Kajol’s cousins Rani Mukerji, Sharbani Mukherjee, and Mohnish Behl are also actors; whereas Ayan Mukerji is a director.

Kajol describes herself as being mischievous, stubborn, and impulsive at a young age. Her parents separated when she was young, but Kajol was unaffected by it since the matter was never discussed at home. Kajol was looked after by her maternal grandmother, who “never let me feel that my mother was away and working”. According to Kajol, her mother inculcated a sense of independence in her since she was young. Growing up between two separate cultures, she inherited her “Maharashtrian pragmatism” from her mother and her “Bengali temperament” from her father. As part of the tradition, along with the Mukherjee family, Kajol, a practising Hindu, celebrates the Durga Puja festival in the suburban neighbourhood of Santacruz annually.

Kajol was educated at St. Joseph’s Convent School, Panchgani. Apart from her studies, she participated in extra-curricular activities, such as dancing. It was in school that she began to form an active interest in reading fiction, as it helped her “through the bad moments” in her life. In the early 1990s, Tanuja tried to direct a film to launch her as an actress, but it was shelved after a few days of shooting. At sixteen, Kajol began work on Bekhudi, which according to her was a “big dose of luck”; she was cast by him when she visited the studio of the photographer Gautam Rajadhyaksha, who also wrote the film’s screenplay. She intended to return to school after shooting during her two-month summer vacation but eventually dropped out to pursue a full-time career in film—though she later regretted the decision.

Film career (Kajol Biography)

Early work (1992–1994)

Kajol made her acting debut at age seventeen in the 1992 romantic drama Bekhudi alongside another debutant, Kamal Sadanah, and her mother Tanuja. Kajol played Radhika, who falls in love with Sadanah’s character against her parents’ disapproval. The film turned out to be a box office flop, but Kajol’s performance gained positive notice. The following year, she was cast in Abbas–Mustan’s crime thriller Baazigar (1993), the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year with revenues of ₹182.5 million (US$2.3 million). Co-starring Shah Rukh Khan and Shilpa Shetty, the film saw Kajol in the role of Priya Chopra, a young woman who falls in love with her sister’s murderer, unaware of his identity. Baazigar marked the first of her many collaborations with Khan. Although her performance drew critical attention, Kajol was criticised for her looks.

She gained wider public recognition for her role in Yeh Dillagi, a romance produced by Yash Raj Films and based on the 1953 American play Sabrina Fair. She starred as Sapna, a chauffeur’s daughter who becomes a model and catches the interest of the two sons of her father’s employers (Akshay Kumar and Saif Ali Khan). A financial success, Yeh Dillagi proved to be a breakthrough for Kajol, earning her the first Best Actress nomination at the annual Filmfare Awards. The Indian Express took note of her believable performance, and Screen concluded that Yeh Dillagi had changed her screen persona from a girl next door to a beauty extraordinaire.

Established actress (1995–1998) (Kajol Biography)

In 1995, Kajol had two major commercial successes opposite Shah Rukh Khan: Karan Arjun and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. The former is an action film by Rakesh Roshan, based on the concept of reincarnation, and it offered her the small part of Sonia Saxena Singh, Khan’s love interest. She explained her minor role in the film, saying that she wanted to be in an ornamental role and admitting she had nothing to do in the film except be glamorous. The film emerged as the second-highest-grossing film of the year in India. Kajol’s next releases—Taaqat, Hulchul and Gundaraj—underperformed at the box office; the latter two were her earliest collaborations with her future husband, Ajay Devgn, and trade analysts linked the failure to their chemistry.

The biggest success of 1998 for Kajol was her final release of that year, Karan Johar’s directorial debut, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. The first Indian feature to be shot in Scotland, it emerged as an all-time blockbuster in both India and overseas. Kajol played Anjali Sharma, a tomboyish college student who is secretly in love with her best friend from college (Shah Rukh Khan). The story follows their renewed encounter years later when he is widowed and she has transformed her appearance and is already engaged to marry someone else. Critics considered Kajol’s performance bold and convincing, despite an otherwise unrealistic plot. Nikhat Kazmi wrote that she is “almost mesmeric” in the part. She won her second Best Actress award at the 44th Filmfare Awards and her first Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female for her work. Filmfare included Kajol’s performances in both Dushman and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in its listing of Indian cinema’s “80 Most Iconic performances”. In a year-end column, The Tribune‘s Madhur Mittal reported that Kajol had “emerged as the consummate heroine with her excellent emoting and sensational screen presence in each portrayal”.

Career fluctuations and hiatus (1999–2001)

Journalists speculated that the supporting role of the other woman of Ajay Devgn’s character in Dil Kya Kare, Kajol’s first release after marriage, would be “the acid test” for her. She explained that she accepted the role solely “because it had shades of grey”. The film met with largely negative reviews, though Deccan Herald noted her for playing the role with finesse. Commercially too, the film failed to do well. The drama Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain, on the other hand, performed well with critics and audiences. Co-starring Anil Kapoor, it gave her experience with “the stereotypical, sacrificing woman role” and earned her another Best Actress Filmfare nomination. The film generated media coverage for being one of the few woman-centred films to attract viewers in Indian cinemas. Her final release of the year was Hote Hote Pyar Ho Gaya. The Hindustan Times noted her chemistry with Jackie Shroff but wrote off the film.

Later that year, Kajol played a leading role in Karan Johar’s ensemble drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…, which was the top-grossing Indian production of all time in the overseas market. She played Anjali Sharma, a young Punjabi woman from the Chandni Chowk area who falls for a wealthy man (Shah Rukh Khan). She identified herself with the character’s noisy nature and found similarities between it and that of Hema Malini in Sholay (1975). The role required Kajol to speak in Punjabi, a language she was not fluent in, and although she struggled at first to master it, she achieved the pronunciation and diction with the help of producer Yash Johar and some of the crew members. Her comic-dramatic performance and Punjabi dialect met with critical acclaim and won her a third Filmfare Award in the Best Actress category. Ziya Us Salam, in a review for The Hindu, asserted: “Kajol steals the thunder from under very high noses indeed. With her precise timing and subtle lingering expression, she is a delight all the way.”

Following Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…, Kajol took a sabbatical from full-time acting and declined the number of film roles. She revealed that she did not quit the cinema, but became more selective of her role choices and wanted to put more focus on her marriage. Film observers generally perceived at this time that her career was over.

Intermittent work (2006–2010) (Kajol Biography)

Kunal Kohli’s romantic thriller Fanaa (2006) marked Kajol’s return to films. She portrayed Zooni Ali Beg, a blind Kashmiri woman who unwittingly falls in love with a terrorist (Aamir Khan). The film was promoted as her comeback, a term she disliked saying that she did not retire but only took a break. Upon release, the film was a financial success, grossing ₹1 billion (US$13 million) against its ₹220 million (US$2.8 million) budget. Both the film and Kajol’s performance were received well. Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu wrote Kajol is enough of a reason to watch it, and Deepa Gahlot believed Kajol’s conviction in the part made up for the film’s flaws. Fanaa fetched Kajol a fourth Filmfare Award and a second Zee Cine Award for Best Actress.

In the same year, Kajol was the protagonist in Siddharth Malhotra‘s We Are Family, an adaptation of the 1998 American drama Stepmom, alongside Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal. Kajol played Maya, a character she identified with for being a “control freak” in chase of perfection, and found it largely different from the one played by Susan Sarandon in the original. Malhotra modelled Maya in part after his grandmother Bina Rai. Mayank Shekhar singled out Kajol’s performance as being better than Sarandon’s, and Rachel Saltz of The New York Times commented that “her naturalism gives the movie a genuine emotional kick”. Kajol’s next release that year, Toonpur Ka Super Hero featured her as Priya Kumar, a woman stuck in a cartoon world. Kajol spoke of the challenge and difficulty of dubbing for the film. Dubbed the first Hindi live-action animated film, The film polarised critics and failed to attract an audience. Her role was dismissed as not having provided her with scope to perform. She followed it with a second hiatus upon the birth of her son in 2010 although she provided a voiceover to the opening credits of the Hindi version of the fantasy film Eega, which was released in 2012.

Dilwale and beyond (2015–present) (Kajol Biography)

Following a five-year absence, Kajol teamed with Shah Rukh Khan for the seventh time in Rohit Shetty’s action romance Dilwale (2015). She portrayed Meera Dev Malik, the daughter of a mafia don who falls for a man from a rival family. Reviewers were varied in their opinions about the film; Mint declared it the “most tiresome film of the year”. The mixed critical response led her to express regret over her choice of the film over the thriller Kahaani 2: Durga Rani Singh (2016). Still, Kajol’s performance drew positive comments despite being a lesser character; in the words of Suhani Singh of India Today, “Kajol is a radiant presence on the screen and delivers what’s expected out of her—which is not much.” Dilwale emerged as a major commercial success, grossing more than ₹3.8 billion (US$48 million) worldwide, and ranks among of the highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time. Kajol’s performance garnered Best Actress nominations at various award ceremonies, including Filmfare.

Kajol’s next project was Renuka Shahane’s social drama Tribhanga (2021), which marked her first collaboration with Netflix. Set in Mumbai, it revolves around the intergenerational conflicts of three women from one family (Kajol, Mithila Palkar and Tanvi Azmi), with Kajol starring as foul-mouthed Odissi dancer Anuradha Apte. She found a resemblance between the relationship of the three leading characters and her own with her mother and daughter. The film, along with Kajol’s performance in it, received positive reviews. Saibal Chatterjee from NDTV praised her for providing the thrilling atmosphere the film needs “to keep trundling along at an even pace”; Stutee Ghosh of The Quint found Azmi and Kajol’s strong performances to have “a stunning hold and it’s difficult to focus on anyone else when they are in the frame”. At the 2nd Filmfare OTT Awards, her performance was nominated for the Best Actress category.

Kajol will next star in Revathi’s family drama Salaam Venky and Disney+ Hotstar’s Political and Legal drama, The Good Wife.

Off-screen work (Kajol Biography)

In 1998, Kajol participated in the concert tour “Awesome Foursome” alongside Shah Rukh Khan, Juhi Chawla, and Akshay Kumar. After travelling across the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States, Kajol refused to participate in any more world tours, unable to handle the stress. In 1999, following the launch of Ajay Devgn’s production company, Devgan Films (renamed as Devgn Entertainment and Software Ltd.), Kajol worked towards building a website: “I’m computer savvy. Or at least I know more about computers than those around me. So I should be of some help there.”

Kajol has been actively involved in several philanthropic endeavours related to women and children. She is involved with Shiksha, a non-governmental organisation for children’s education, and in 2009 she launched a campaign to support the cause. In 2011, Kajol participated in a fashion show organised by the Cancer Patients Aid Association, to generate funds for the organisation, and as the international goodwill ambassador and patron of The Loomba Trust (a charity organisation devoted to supporting widows and their children around the world, particularly in India). In 2012, Kajol was appointed as the brand ambassador of Pratham, a charity organization for children, and she featured in a short film on education and literacy, with the Hanuman Basti Primary School’s students in Mumbai, to support it. Also that year, she made a documentary about the protection of the girl child as a part of the Government of Maharashtra‘s campaign “Save the Girl Child”. For her contribution to social service, Kajol was awarded the Karmaveer Puraskar.

Films (Kajol Biography)

Key

Denotes films that have not yet been released

Year	TitlE	Role(s)	Notes
1992	Bekhudi	Radhika	Debut
1993	Baazigar	Priya Chopra
1994	Udhaar Ki Zindagi	Sita
	Yeh Dillagi	Sapna
1995	Karan Arjun	Sonia Saxena
	Taaqat	Kavita
	Hulchul	Sharmili
	Gundaraj	Ritu
	Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge	Simran Singh
1996	Bambai Ka Babu	Neha
1997	Minsara Kanavu	Priya Amalraj	Tamil film debut
	Gupt	Isha Diwan
	Hameshaa	Rani/Reshma Sharma
	Ishq	Kajal Jindal
1998	Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya	Muskaan Thakur
	Duplicate	Gungun	Cameo
	Dushman	Naina/Sonia
	Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha	Sanjana
	Kuch Kuch Hota Hai	Anjali Sharma
1999	Dil Kya Kare	Nandita Rai
	Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain	Megha Verma
	Hote Hote Pyar Ho Gaya	Pinky
2000	Raju Chacha	Sanjana
2001	Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi	Sweety/Tina Khanna
	Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…	Anjali Sharma
2003	Kal Ho Naa Ho	Herself	In the song “Maahi Ve”
2006	Fanaa	Zooni Ali Beg	Also playback singer for the song “Mere Haath Mein”
	Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna	Herself	In song “Rock N Roll Soniye”
2007	Om Shanti Om	Herself	In song “Deewangi Deewangi”
2008	U Me Aur Hum	Piya
	Haal-e-dil	Herself	In the song “Oye Hoye”
	Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi	Nargis	In song “Chalte Chalte”
2010	My Name Is Khan	Mandira Khan
	We Are Family	Maya
	Toonpur Ka Superhero	Priya Shruti	Animated film
2012	Student of the Year	Herself	In the song “Disco Deewane”
2015	Dilwale	Meera Malik
2017	Velaiilla Pattadhari 2	Vasundhara Parameshwar	Tamil film
2018	Helicopter Eela	Eela
	Zero	Herself	Cameo
2020	Tanhaji	Savitri Bai
	Devi	Jyoti	Short film
2021	Tribhanga	Anuradha	Netflix film
2022	Salaam Venky	Sujata	Filming

Web Series (Kajol Biography)

Year	Title	Role	Platform(s)	Notes
TBA	The Good Wife	TBA	Disney+ Hotstar	Filming

Dubbing

Television

Personal life (Kajol Biography)

Kajol began dating actor Ajay Devgn in 1994 while filming Gundaraj. Members of the media, however, labelled them as an “unlikely pair” due to their contrasting personalities. Devgn explained their relationship by saying, “We never resorted to the usual ‘I love you’ routine. A proposal never happened. We grew with each other. Marriage was never discussed, but it was always imminent”. The couple married on 24 February 1999 in a traditional Maharashtrian ceremony at Devgn’s house. The wedding was subject to wide media scrutiny, as certain members of the media criticised Kajol’s decision to settle down at the pinnacle of her career. Kajol, however, maintained that she would not quit films, but would cut down on the amount of work that she did.

Following her marriage, Kajol moved in with Devgn and his parents at the latter’s ancestral house in Juhu. Tabloids have often romantically linked Devgn with other Bollywood actresses and reported an imminent divorce. Dismissing the rumours as gossip, Kajol attested to not giving attention to such talk. Kajol prefers not to talk much about her personal life and dislikes being interviewed, considering it “a waste of time”. She gave birth to a daughter, Nysa, on 20 April 2003. Seven years later, on 13 September 2010, she gave birth to a son, Yug. She described motherhood as “fab” and added that her kids brought out “the best in her”. Kajol has used Devgn as her surname since 2015. She speaks English, Hindi and Marathi, and “can understand Bengali”.

Screen persona and reception (Kajol Biography)

After portraying leading roles in a series of family dramas, Kajol showed her acting versatility with Gupt: The Hidden Truth (1997), for which she was noted as being one of the first actresses of her era to play female anti-hero characters and becoming more popular than the male actors. She was also praised for her lively and spirited nature on-screen. Rajiv Menon credited Kajol as representing the joie de vivre of the 1990s, and Khalid Mohammed described her as “a great packet of talent”. According to Open, her spontaneity brought “a unique energy” to her films, and Karan Johar said, “I would call ‘action’ on a shoot and expect a little atom bomb explosion on set every time Kajol was around because that is who she was. She kept us all on our toes.” The Hindu stated she “does not act out her scenes and deliver her lines; she inhabits her characters.” The scholar Ashish Rajadhyaksha observed that she was the actress “around whom a script can be written and a film made”.

Unlike most of her contemporaries, Kajol has had a successful career post-marriage and motherhood, for which she was characterised as “the archetypal New Age woman”. On breaking the stereotype, she opined: “Perceptions have changed a lot in the last few years. Married actresses don’t necessarily have to play character roles in films. Filmmakers are experimenting and this is truly the best time for actresses like us.” Following her marriage, journalists speculated it would be the ending point of her career. She continued to work in films but has been more selective, attributing it to the lack of worthy offers and her unwillingness to see herself in “films that are absolutely meaningless”. Critics however noted that her success is attached to her collaborations with the filmmakers Karan Johar and Aditya Chopra. She defended this by saying her preference was to work with people she is comfortable with. Similar thoughts were expressed by the film distributor Ramesh Sippy, who stated that she added prospects to films she starred in.

In the media (Kajol Biography)

Known for her impulsive and stubborn nature, Kajol has been described by commentators to have a striking personality. Sukanya Verma wrote, “Think Kajol, think emotions. Either she is the firebrand or the emotionally sensitive type. And sometimes she is pure, wicked fun.” While interviewing her for the Hindustan Times in 2008, the journalist Hiren Kotwani took note of her straightforwardness when she was answering the given questions. India Today presumed that her outspoken behaviour has contributed to helping her winning film awards, and further commented, “There is a sparkling spontaneity to Kajol … Film brats are rapidly tutored on the conventional wisdom of the industry, the line to success that needs to be toed. Maybe Tanuja never taught it, maybe Kajol never listened, for she has abandoned the predictable.”

In 2002, Kajol was presented with the Rajiv Gandhi Awards by the Mumbai Pradesh Youth Congress. She was one of the four Bollywood actors, alongside Priyanka Chopra, Hrithik Roshan and Shah Rukh Khan, whose miniature dolls were launched in the United Kingdom, under the name of “Bollywood Legends” in 2006. Kajol and Khan also became the first Indian actors to be invited by NASDAQ to open the NYSE American for promoting their film, My Name Is Khan (2010). In the next year, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour of the country, for her contribution to India’s cinema. The Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis honoured her with the Swabhimani Mumbaikar Awards. Kajol unveiled her wax statue at London’s Madame Tussauds museum in 2018.

Awards and nominations (Kajol Biography)

State honours (Kajol Biography)

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