Recently, Kajol was out and about to promote Parched, her husband Ajay Devgn‘s production. Directed by Leena Yadav, the film tells the story of four women in a village who are oppressed and deal with various other social issues. When asked what the film is about, Kajol said that even though it deals with an issue, it’s an entertaining film with good music, and has a strong message:
I think what it’s actually about is twisting your perspective around. It has to do with women, of course, it’s about women – but it has to do with how you face a problem. The problem can either seem insurmountable, like oh my God, I’m never going to be able to defeat it… or you can just find a way around that big mountain and take the long way round – but you’ll get there eventually.
Throughout our conversation with her, she spoke quite a bit about sexism, feminism and building other women up. Here are some of the more important things she said:
On what she’d like to teach her daughter…
I think Parched is about hope and not believing everything you’re told and trying to think for yourself. The one thing I’d like to teach Nysa is how to think for herself and not to blindly accept anything that anyone – including me – dictates to her.
On being made to feel guilty…
Happiness is a guilt-free choice, it can be a guilt-free choice. I think, as women, one thing that’s more prevalent than sexism is the guilt. We are constantly facing it left, right and centre – [wondering] whether we’re not good enough sisters, or not good enough wives on certain days.
On her definition of feminism…
I think a feminist is a woman who knows her strengths, knows her weaknesses, and at the same time is balanced enough to understand that when she needs to ask for help, she can. She’s not too much on the other side so that she can’t turn around and say ‘listen, I need help with this, please help me with this.’ I’m human. I’m not only woman, I’m human.
On whether she identifies as a feminist…
Definitely! It took me a long time to get there. It took me a long time to say ‘Listen, I need help’ and to ask the right people for help. It took me a while to learn that lesson.
On building other women up…
We, as women, need to stand up for women. We need to support each other as a gender as well. Say ‘yay, go, you did it! You’re a woman, you did it! We’re behind you!’ I mean, the guys do it – we have the boys’ club, so why not the women’s club as well? [laughs]
What are your thoughts on her statements?