Be it ‘Baazigar’, ‘Dushman’, ‘Gupt’, ‘Salaam Venky’ and now the web series ‘The Trial’, Kajol has a penchant for powerful female characters and the actor said that portraying women who are not ‘weak and vulnerable’ comes naturally to her. In the upcoming show, the actor plays Noyonika Sengupta, a housewife who is forced to return to work as a lawyer after her husband's public scandal puts him behind bars.
Directed by Suparn S Varma, ‘The Trial - Pyaar, Kaanoon, Dhokha’ is the Indian adaptation of the popular American series ‘The Good Wife’.
Kajol said that her choices as an actor mirror her powerful off-screen persona.
“To play a strong, powerful character is easier for me than to play a weak character. It’s natural for me to be strong rather than vulnerable,” the actor told PTI in an interview.
She added, “The great thing about Noyonika is that she is a strong person, but when a strong person is put in a situation where they are weakened and vulnerable, that’s a tough thing to play. It was one of the reasons why I love her as a character.”
The 48-year-old could relate to Noyonika’s way of dealing with difficult situations.
“Suparn wanted me because she is a public figure and she is a mother of two kids. There are so many factors in her character. One thing I resonate with a lot more about Noyonika is that, at her core, she is an eminently practical woman. She will do what needs to be done, even if it hurts her sensibility and if she knows it needs to be done, she will do it for the good of the family. She will go ahead and do it because there’s nobody else to do it,” Kajol said.
As an actor, Kajol still finds it difficult to be coy in front of the camera.
“I struggle with it. I don’t know how to be shy. I don’t know how to do ‘sharam’. I don’t understand the emotion,” she said, adding that one genre she wants to explore is comedy.
She added, “I haven’t found the right script. I really want to try comedy. I should because I do it so well in real life.”
‘The Trial’, which will premiere on ‘Disney+ Hotstar’ on July 14, marks her long-format debut.
The actor received several offers for OTTs in the past, but nothing truly worked out until ‘The Trial’.
“There was a lot of back-and-forth. I never think about, ‘What if I had done this or accepted this’. I never think any film is mine until I sign on the dotted line and start working on it. I am very happy that ‘The Trial’ is the show that will be my OTT debut.”
‘The Trial’ also features Sheeba Chaddha, Alyy Khan, Kubbra Sait and Gaurav Pandey.