Kajol has been one of the top most Bollywood heroines ever since she made her debut with Bekhudi in 1992. However, her ascent to fame is not through drop-dead-gorgeous looks but through sheer acting talent and a devil-may-care attitude that resonated with a lot of women back then and still do now. With her dusky skin and unibrow, Kajol did not conform to Bollywood’s narrow sense of beauty ideals of the early 90s and is still the only actress who sports the unibrow. In a new chat with Netflix, she spoke about how it took her several years to call herself beautiful even though she thought herself to be ‘sexy, smart and attractive’.
Talking to the streaming giant, Kajol reminisced about what her grandmother, Shobhna Samarth had told her. She said, “The idea of seeing the beauty in imperfection is something my grandmother tried to instil in me at a very young age. She was considered one of the great beauties of her time, but she always told me, ‘It’s my slight cockeye that makes me beautiful!’ Yet, it was many years before I could look at myself in the mirror and go, ‘You are beautiful!’,” she said. Don’t get me wrong - I was very confident in my skin growing up. There were many adjectives I applied to myself: attractive, smart, cool, sexy even. But I didn’t consider myself beautiful. A lot of it had to do with what everybody was spouting at that time. It took me a long time to arrive at ‘beautiful’.”
Kajol accepted the fact that now when she catches a glimpse of herself in the mirror or while clicking a selfie, she tells herself that she is beautiful and hoped that women across culture and ages practiced some self-love as well.
Kajol broke several stereotypes associated with Bollywood. She married young at the peak of her career and even made a scintillating comeback with Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham after becoming a mother. She has defied notions with her unconventional looks, total disdain for fashion and high-profile parties and sugar-coating things, maybe that is why she still boasts of an ardent fan-following who swears by her name.
(Source: Netflix)
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