FILM INTERVIEW: JUHI CHAWLA

Bollywood actress and former Miss India Juhi Chawla is certainly looking forward to the latest film to be added to her filmography, as I Am recently screened at a film festival last week. Making a name for herself in the 1990s with her warm vibe, cute dimples, and bubbly personality, Ms. Chawla is now struggling to find steady work in Bollywood.

 

She believes it is because there are so few “age-appropriate” roles that are also substantive and interesting available in current productions. 

 

Speaking to the media at the Bollywood and Beyond Festival in Australia, Ms. Chawla said Bollywood does not do a good job of keeping pace with its aging talent, making it difficult for people like her to find ideal and meaningful roles.

 

“I have grown out of campus romances. So now I want roles that are interesting and age-appropriate. Of late, all I could do was I Am or Luck By Chance or Bhootnath,” Ms. Chawla told the press. “There are not so many to choose from, but you go with what you connect with.”

 

Just the same, Ms. Chawla is empathetic with the current crop of younger actresses; the ones who are equally in demand now as Ms. Chawla was in the 1990s have to endure in order to remain superficially relevant, what with high pressure to maintain perfect figures.

 

“I hope they are not killing each other to fit into those little clothes which you have to wear these days in the films,” she told the press.

 

As young actresses are doing just about anything to push themselves to the head of the class, Ms. Chawla also recognized there were times when she was not the most responsible person when deciding how to progress in her own acting career, all in the name of pride and ego.

 

“In the past, there were times when I made dumb decisions because I was flying very high and you lose your balance. I wish I had not done that,” the actress, who walked away from blockbusters such as Dil Toh Pagal Hai and Raja Hindustani--both films which solidified the superstar status of actresses such as Madhuri Dixit and Karisma Kapoor--said.

 

“Yash Chopra asked me to do Dil Toh Pagal Hai with Madhuri Dixit. I refused it and said I don’t want to be with Madhuri and get the second billing. That was my ego speaking. I should have said yes,” Ms. Chawla retrospectively observed. “Another film was Raja Hindustani. I thought it was not my kind of stuff, it was too loud. But it turned out to be a blockbuster. So I made dumb decisions at times.”

 

Still, the ultimate “dumb decision” is not learning from past actions when making present decisions about the future. With that, Ms. Chawla believes she has learned quite well how to make the right decisions in Bollywood, which, ironically, may actually exasperate the difficulty in landing new projects. “I listen to a script as an audience, and if I like it and I know I can crack it, I go ahead and do it,” she stated.

 

Similarly, she has learned a thing or two from Aamir Khan, who worked with Ms. Chawla in films such as Ishq, Kayamat se Kayamat Tak, and Hum Hain Raahi Pyaar Ke.

 

“He was always extremely bright. He stuck out and said, 'I don’t want to do films which don’t make sense to me,'” she observed to the press--an observation of Mr. Khan she hopes to incorporate into however much more (or less) time she has remaining in Bollywood.

 

As Ms. Chawla continues to evolve and grow as a person and as an actress, one thing is for sure: she will be rooting for the continued success of I Am--which was directed by Onir and stars Manisha Koirala, Nandita Das, and Rahul Bose--for the immediate short-term.