SRK and I are not 16: Kajol

Kajol may be feeling too overworked having three releases this year but her fans are more than delighted. Her first film releasing this year is Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan opposite her DDLJ hero Shah Rukh Khan. “But this is not a cliched love story,” the actress tells BT about the film which has been tailor-made for her and SRK...

Karan Johar’s My Name is Khan, Kireet Khurana’s Toonpur Ka Superhero and Siddharth Malhotra’s Love You Maa (tentative title) you have three releases in 2010!
God, it is shocking, even scary sometimes. I didn’t realise that I have been working like a dog, which I swore never to do.

Expectations from MNIK are sky-high considering it has one of the best Bollywood screen couples — SRK and you?
As far as expectations go, you can never work for expectations. You have to work against them. My Name is Khan is a very special film. Karan, SRK and I have worked very hard to make it a good film. We’ve put in our hundred per cent and we hope everyone else thinks so too.

SRK said that when the two of you work together, you’ll invariably look out for each other as friends...
SRK and I have the kind of friendship where we do look out for each other. I’m glad we have that kind of friendship. Yes it is true that when we work together, he is concerned about my performance; and I’m concerned about his. We’re on the same level and we often tell each other, ‘Listen you can add this to what you’re doing,’ and vice versa. Our takes aren’t very different from each other.

Was Khan a more difficult film to make because it deals with sensitive issues like the Asperger’s syndrome and even some socially relevant ones?
MNIK is just a ‘more’ film, if you know what I mean. It is not a clichéd love story per se. SRK and I are not 16. So we’re not bubbly teenagers any more. We have progressed to another level and our performances and the film has been tailor-made for that level.

Aamir Khan, SRK, Salman Khan, Saif Ali Khan... you’ve done films with the top grade Khan level; who’s next?
Oh God, my choice of film has never depended on the hero. In fact, you will see that some of my categorical mistakes had nothing to do with the hero in it. I think I’d like to continue doing good work. I’d like to do interesting scripts. No run-of-the-mill stuff for me. I also want to do films in my time. Just the thought that I have three releases coming up this year has tired me. I need a break really bad.