Actor Kajol, who turns 50 today, once considered quitting the film industry but didn’t take Shah Rukh Khan’s advice seriously.

Kajol, who turns 50 on Monday, wanted to quit acting. (Photo: Instagram/Kajol)

Bollywood actor Kajol, who turns 50 on Monday, August 5, once wanted to quit the film industry as she felt burnt out as an actor. She even ignored Shah Rukh Khan’s advice on learning acting techniques, only to realise later how important it is for an actor to sometimes not give their everything to a character.

“I reached a point in my career where I was doing things unconsciously. I was doing everything… I was like ‘ye bhi kar do, ye dialogue bhi bol do, sab kuch andar se nikal raha tha’ (Do everything, say every dialogue, everything was coming from within),” Kajol shared during an interview with Humans of Cinema.

At the time, Shah Rukh Khan, with whom Kajol had shared the screen in films like Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, advised her to learn acting technique. But she didn’t take him seriously.

“I remember having this conversation with Shah Rukh, and he was like, ‘Maybe you have got to learn this technique of acting.’ I was like, ‘What’s that? Aisi bhi koi cheez hai? (Is there something like that too?)’ He said, ‘Yes, people are taught this technique, and you have to learn this because you cannot do everything from within.’ I didn’t take it seriously then,” Kajol recalled.

But then came a time when Kajol felt exhausted from her job and told her mother, actor Tanuja, that she wanted a break from “meaningful cinema.”

Kajol shared, “I did a film called Udhar Ki Zindagi (1994). After that film, I felt I was done with the film industry and acting. I was completely burnt out as an actor and I didn’t want to do movies any more. I told my mother I was taking a break from all this meaningful cinema, this rona-dhona and good roles. I didn’t want to do them any more. I told her I wanted to be a typical 3-scenes and 4-songs kind of actor who doesn’t have many scenes. So, I signed 3 films which had that kind of role, and they were a relief.”

However, during this time, Kajol also learnt the importance of learning the technique. She realised, “You don’t have to give so much of yourself to something and you can just act knowing you are good at it.”

Kajol made her acting debut with the 1992 romantic drama Bekhudi. Though the film was a box office failure, Kajol gained popularity. She first tasted success with the 1993 film Baazigar, co-starring Shilpa Shetty and Shah Rukh Khan.