I choose boundaries over noise as it keeps me sane: Kajal Aggarwal | Hindi Movie News
Kajal Aggarwal is set to play Mandodari in Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana, and as she talks about the film, motherhood and social media, her excitement is almost tactile. She smiles, “This role is genuinely a dream role for me. I feel extremely grateful that I got a chance to be part of a film like this—the vision, the scale, the production value, and of course the story of Ramayana itself.” She adds that the epic is “so close to all our hearts,” and that playing Mandodari, “one of the Panchkanyas,” has pushed her to keep reading and researching so she can “get it right.”Her first proper visit to Lucknow has only amplified that sense of rootedness. “I have a lot of family in Lucknow,” she shares. “I meet my cousins and my parents’ cousins often, but I never really get to come here.” This time, she is determined to make it count. “I’ve heard about the food and especially the kebabs. I’m vegetarian, so I won’t be trying everything. But I’m excited to try paneer kebabs and all the vegetarian versions. I also want to go see the old areas, the architecture of Lucknow, and then I want to go to Aminabad. I want to see all these lovely, historic, deeply rooted cultural places.”When the conversation turns to Ramayana’s cutting-edge VFX, she lights up. “We were doing some VFX work where I had to sit in this cage-type circular thing,” she recalls. “There were cameras 360 degrees around me, from the top to the bottom. I felt like I was sitting inside a globe with cameras everywhere.” She has done this kind of performance capture once before, for S Shankar’s Indian 3. “For that, I had to fly to LA for 12 hours, work for about eight hours and fly back to India straight to my shoot. But I have to say, in India we have now reached a level where this was far superior to the studio abroad. That makes me so proud that we are really crossing boundaries and doing superior work compared to many Hollywood studios.”Work on Nitesh Tiwari’s Ramayana, she says, has only just begun for her, but the energy on set is infectious. “I’ve just about started my work there and I still have a long way to go with the schedule, but so far it has been amazing. It’s been so exciting,” she says. “The whole cast is dedicated, I think anybody who is part of this film will go all out and give it their 500 percent.”That same intensity doesn’t extend to social media, where Kajal has learned to protect her inner life. “For me it’s all love. I choose to ignore the negativity,” she says plainly. “I just go off and take a digital detox for my own sanity because I choose my peace of mind, my family, and my private space. My life cannot be on social media 24/7. It’s not even alright to do that. But to each their own.” She still values the medium as a bridge. “For me, social media is a great way to communicate with my fans, interact with people from the media, and connect. It’s a great tool, but everyone must use it wisely.”Her boundaries are even firmer when it comes to her son. “To each their own. It’s a very personal thing,” she says, when asked about celebrity kids and the camera. “It’s the parents’ choice and the family’s choice. No one should enforce anything.” She points out the basic imbalance at play. “You may be the actor, but the child isn’t. They won’t get it. And it’s not fair if flashlights are going off in their eyes. They’re too tiny. They might get scared.” She admits she shielded him as long as she could. “I kept my child away from it for as long as I could. I still try to keep his face away from media and social media as much as I can. But if he is featured, I’m very fastidious about it.”On the subject of AI, Kajal is clear-eyed rather than alarmist. “Not yet,” she says, when asked if she’s been offered any AI-based projects. “But AI is the future. Actually not even the future—it’s the present. It’s happening as we speak. We all have to learn to adapt and not let it take over us and rule us.”Her view of Indian cinema is equally assured. “I think we are at full potential. I don’t think anything is missing,” she says firmly. “And when it comes to South India, I think it’s doing far better than Bollywood at the moment. With films like Pushpa and RRR, we’ve reached global scale already. Nothing is lacking. With consistency and hard work, we are definitely going to kill it and be the number one industry long-term.”
Kajal with her son Neil Kitchlu
Motherhood, she says, has changed the lens through which she views everything. “Motherhood has made me very emotional, very sensitive, and very real,” she reflects. “It opened feelings in my heart that I didn’t even know existed.” The surprises, she adds, are in the tiny, everyday moments. “Unexpected moments when my child surprises me or something almost miraculously turns out the way it’s supposed to. You feel grateful for those tiny things every day.”-Manas Mishra
