‘I cut down on projects’

Year 2015 will mark nine years in showbusiness for Kaajal Agarwal, with work spread across the Tamil, Telugu and Hindi film industries. The upcoming Temper with NTR Jr will be her third project with the actor and the actress is quite looking forward to this one. “He plays a cop and I’m the one helping him make the transition from bad cop to good cop,” says the star.

With questions on movies out of the way, the star takes us back to the day it all started — when a young graduate from Mumbai decided to dive into the South’s thriving movie industry.

“I remember being very anxious. And I arrived on the sets in Goa with dad in tow, feeling very iffy about the whole thing. My plan was to test the waters. I had no plans to act in films and I was considering a career in marketing at the time. But then that movie (director Teja’s Lakshmi Kalyanam, 2007) worked out well, and since then the journey has been amazing,” she says.

It has. Kajal has managed to cement a position for herself in the industry and it’s only now that she has decided to cut down on the worklog. “Earlier, it was five to six movies simultaneously. And that had me running for 14-hours with just minutes for make-up and other preps. I would travel from Bombay, move to a hotel, try to get some sleep, wake up at five and then leave... ready for the shot at 8, always on time. That left me with no time for family or friends with just a mobile phone to reach out,” she adds.

But despite the schedule, the star finds time for the loved ones back home in Bombay, because she has never relocated to a home in Hyderabad or Chennai. “I still shuttle between cities. My folks give me that much support and my mum still travels with me wherever I go.”

Over the course of these years, Kajal has also found friends she can lean on from within the industry.“I don’t know why there are several myths about this industry. It’s just that I make sure my work stays away from my social life — I try my best to not combine the two. Tamannaah has been my friend since my earliest days. She’s the one person, from the film industry, I would go out of the way for. In fact, one day, we found ourselves staying on the same floor at a hotel in Chennai and it was so exciting... We made sure we had dinner because yes, I would take out time for her. And she too.”

Talk now goes towards the future — family and plans. “Of course, I would like to settle down and start a family one day. I haven’t found the guy yet. I would take the dive when the time’s right. For now, it’s just work... and more work.”