KAJOL

'Kajol Devgan', née 'Mukherjee' (Bengali: কাজল দেবগন ''Kajol Debgôn'', Marathi: काजोल देवगण, IPA: , ITRANS: kajol), born August 5, 1975 in Mumbai, India, popularly known as 'Kajol', is an award-winning popular Bollywood actress.
Kajol made her acting debut with Bekhudi (1992) and had her first hit with her second film ''Baazigar'' (1993) along with Shahrukh Khan, with whom she later went to deliver some of the biggest Bollywood hits like ''Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge'' (1995) and ''Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'' (1998). Her performances in both the films were praised and earned her two Filmfare Best Actress Awards. After the successful ''Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham'' released in 2001, she took a sabbatical from full time acting for five years. She made a successful comeback with Kunal Kohli's ''Fanaa'' (2006), for which she received her fourth ''Best Actress'' award at the Filmfare ceremony.
During her career years, she has been part of many critically and commercially successful films, and is regarded as one of India's most successful actresses.^[1]

Contents

Film Background

Career

Television

Awards

Filmography

See also

References

External links

Film Background

''Main article'': ''Mukherjee-Samarth family (film)''
Touted as one of the best actresses in the Bollywood industry, Kajol, who is of Bengali-Marathi descent, in fact belongs to a family tree with a long respectable history in the Indian cinema.
Her mother Tanuja is a Marathi/Hindi actress whilst her father Shomu Mukherjee is a film producer.
Late maternal aunt Nutan is the record holder for the most (five times) Filmfare awards for an actress. Late maternal grandmother Shobhna Samarth and great grandmother Rattan Bai had both been influential figures in the early Bollywood film industry.
Her paternal uncles are also film producers; Joy Mukherjee and Deb Mukherjee. Kajol's grandfather Sashadhar Mukherjee was a film director and producer who had left a great achievement in the Bombay film industry. His wife Satirani Devi, Kajol's paternal grandmother, was the sister of three great film personalities, Ashok Kumar, Anoop Kumar and Kishore Kumar.
Kajol's cousins Rani Mukerji, Sharbani Mukherjee and Mohnish Behl are also Bollywood actors. Kajol's younger sister Tanisha Mukherjee has recently started a film career.
Kajol is now married to Bollywood actor Ajay Devgan and has a daughter named Nysa, which means Goddess of purity.

Career

Kajol left school and started her career at the age of seventeen. Although her debut film, ''Bekhudi'' (1992) wasn't a great success at the box office, her performance was noticed and she went on to become a successful actress with many box office hits to her credit.^[2]
In 1993, she shot to fame with her second film ''Baazigar'', which was her first major hit.^[3] She went on to make a popular pairing with her ''Baazigar'' co-star, Shahrukh Khan in ''Karan Arjun'' (1995), ''Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'' (1995), ''Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'' (1998) and ''Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham'' (2001).^[4] ''Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge'' was so well received that, as of April 2007, it continues to show in a Mumbai cinema for eleven continuous years.^[5] Devgan's performance was praised and she received her first Filmfare Best Actress Award.
In 1997 she starred in '', which was one of the highest grossing films of that year.^[6] Her performance was a significant development for female actors in Bollywood; she was the first female actor to win the Filmfare Best Villain Award. Her second Filmfare Best Actress Award was received for her performance in ''Kuch Kuch Hota Hai'', which was the biggest hit of that year.^[7]
She also made a successful screen couple with husband Ajay Devgan in movies such as ''Ishq'' (1997) and ''Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha'' (1998).^[8]
After the successful ''Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham'' in 2001, for which she won several Best Actress Awards including her third Filmfare Best Actress Award, she took a sabbatical from full time acting for five years. She gave birth to her daughter Nysa in 2003. A few months after her delivery, she made a brief cameo appearance in the 2003 film ''Kal Ho Naa Ho''.
Before her comeback to the silver screen, in 2005, Kajol had already started acting actively in advertisements, mostly with her husband Ajay Devgan. In May 2006, she made a successful comeback in ''Fanaa'', one of the highest grossing films of the year.^[9] She won her fourth Filmfare Best Actress Award for her performance in this movie, portraying a blind Kashmiri girl who fell in love with a Kashmiri independence fighter. Her fourth Filmfare Best Actress Award places her at par with other famous Bollywood actresses, Meena Kumari and Madhuri Dixit, each of whom holds 4 Best Actress Awards from Filmfare. Kajol's late aunt, Nutan is holding the record for five such awards.
Later in August 2006, she made a brief appearance in her friend Karan Johar's ''Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna'' in the "Rock n' Roll Soniye" song. This was the film for which she was offered her comeback role, but which she declined over ''Fanaa'' instead.^[10]
Currently, she is working on her husband Ajay Devgan's directorial debut ''U, Me Aur Hum'' which is set for release this year. She is also set to give a guest appearance in Farah Khan's ''Om Shanti Om''.

Television

In 2005, she appeared on the TV show ''Kaun Banega Crorepati'' (the Indian version of Who wants to be a millionaire?) hosted by Amitabh Bachchan. She was paired with her husband Ajay Devgan. They won 1 crore (10 million) rupees and donated them to a cancer hospital in Chennai. She has also appeared on ''Indian Idol'', seasons one and two, as a guest judge.
She also appeared on Karan Johar's talk show ''Koffee with Karan'' with Shahrukh Khan on the first episode. Back again with Season 2 of Koffee with Karan, Karan's first episode started with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai reunion. After almost a decade since his directoral debut Karan invited her along with Shahrukh and Rani Mukerji.

Awards

Main articles: List of Kajol's awards and nominations

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Other notes
1992	''Bekhudi''	Radhika
1993	''Baazigar''	Priya Chopra
1994	''Udhaar Ki Zindagi''	Sita
	''Yeh Dillagi''	Sapna	Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
1995	''Karan Arjun''	Sonia Saxena
	''Taaqat''	Kavita
	''Hulchul''	Sharmili
	''Gunda Raj''	Ritu
	''Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge''	Simran Singh	'Winner', Filmfare Best Actress Award
1996	''Bambai Ka Babu''	Neha
1997	''	Isha Diwan	'Winner', Filmfare Best Villain Award
	''Hamesha''	Rani Sharma/Reshma
	''Minsaara Kanavu''	Priya	Tamil film (''Sapnay'' is the Hindi version) 'Winner', Filmfare Best Actress Award South
	''Ishq''	Kajal
1998	''Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya''	Muskaan Thakur
	''Duplicate''	Girl at train station	Guest appearance
	''Dushman''	Sonia/Naina Saigal	Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
	''Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha''	Sanjana	Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
	''Kuch Kuch Hota Hai''	Anjali Sharma	'Winner', Filmfare Best Actress Award
1999	''Dil Kya Kare''	Nandita Rai
	''Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain''	Megha	Nominated, Filmfare Best Actress Award
	''Hote Hote Pyar Ho Gaya''	Pinky
2000	''Raju Chacha''	Anna
2001	''Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi''	Tina/Sweety Khanna	Double role
	''Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham''	Anjali Sharma Raichand	'Winner', Filmfare Best Actress Award
2003	''Kal Ho Naa Ho''		Special appearance in song ''Maahi Ve''
2006	''Fanaa''	Zooni Ali Beg	'Winner', Filmfare Best Actress Award
	''Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna''		Special appearance in song ''Rock N Roll Soniye''
2007	''Om Shanti Om''		Special appearance in song ''Om Shanti Om''
	''U, Me Aur Hum''		Filming

See also

★ List of Indian movie actresses
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References

1. Top Superstar Actresses
2. Actresses Filmographies
3. Box Office Results 1993
4. Kajol's Filmography
5. Trivia for Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
6. Box Office Results 1997
7. Box Office Results 1998
8. Kajol's Filmography
9. Box Office 2006
10. Trivia for Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna

External links

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