“Back in our times, we worked without cell-phones, vanity vans, monitors” – Kajol

December 15, 2015 - 10:07 AM IST

Back in 2010, Kajol had as many as three film releases to her name - My Name Is Khan with her favorite on-screen partner Shah Rukh Khan, We Are Family with friend Karan Johar and Toonpur Ka Superrhero with hubby Ajay Devgn. Five years down the line, she is reuniting with Shah Rukh Khan and her hubby's favorite director Rohit Shetty with Dilwale. Clearly, a lot has changed in half the decade gone by, most importantly the manner in which the entire marketing and promotion happens for a film. We get talking to Kajol about the changes that she is seeing, most of which she believes is for the better.

On the promotional rigmarole she is going through:

(Laughs) Don't tell me about, it is really tough for me. I have never done so much of promotion in my life. Even though My Name Is Khan was a big film and we did promote it, it wasn't so heavy and to this extent. Of course I agree that promotions are important. You need to tell people that your film is coming to theaters. You have to make noise if you must. I think it is a different world today, especially with the advent of social media. While it shrinks your world down, at the same time it expands your reach. We are changing and very importantly escalating at a very fast pace, especially in terms of technology.

“Back in our times, we worked without cell-phones, vanity vans, monitors” – Kajol

On the newer designs she is witnessing:

It is fantastic to see the people reach out to people across the world while sitting at one place. (Says animatedly) Agar puraane zamaane mein kisi ko bolte ki aap wahan logon se 4-5 countries mein ek saath video par baat kar sakte ho toh woh kahega - 'Guruji, swamiji, isko magic bol dete toh maan lete, aisa sach mein kaise ho sakta hai'. Aaj ki date mein hum actually mein aisa kar dete hain toh aam baat ho gayi hai. Recently we did a video conference where journalists from seven different countries, including U.K., U.S.A and Germany were all there. We did it all on the big screen theater, it was amazing.

On changes she has seen in 20 years:

I remember working till I was a 22-23 year old; we didn't have phones or vanity vans. (Stretches her tone) In last 10-15 years especially, things have spread up from here to there! Tab hamaare paas kuch bhi nahi tha. Make-up rooms were so bad, hum log kahin bhi make-up karte they. Woh sheeshe ke saath bulb lage hote they naa; ussi se kaam chala lete they. Aaj sab kuch itna drastically change ho gaya hai. Now we have cell-phones, vanity vans and monitors. Tab toh we didn't have any clue what we were doing. Sirf director aur camerman ko pata hota tha (laughs).