Thursdays should officially be considered as coffee day but with a ‘K’. Why you ask? Well, it’s on this day that we get our much-needed Bollywood dose from a Koffee couch. And this week it was no different as Koffee With Karan is back with its 6th episode of this season.
Well, any guesses on the guest for this show? Hint: his first leading ladies. Yes, it was none other than Kajol and Rani Mukherjee. As expected this show was all things nostalgic, conversations around films and Bollywood that existed when there was no social media, strong friendships and familial bonds.
Highlights of the show:
Reminiscing the ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ days: It was Kajol and Rani Mukherjee on the Koffee couch, of course, it had to start with going back to the Kuch Kuch Hota Hai days from where it all began, especially for Karan Johar as a filmmaker. The movie has now completed 25 years, yet the three of them shared so many interesting incidents, that none of us have heard of in these many years. Firstly it began with Rani revealing how Karan didn’t let her eat because she had to lose weight for the movie and instead she ended up gaining 4 to 5 extra kgs to SRK and KJo hitting her for not getting her rhythm right during one of the scenes.
And the most interesting of all is how Rani a newcomer turned into a choreographer for already-established and successful movie stars SRK and Kajol. Karan shared that during the shoot of the song ‘Koi Mil Gaya’ at one point both SRK and Kajol thought Rani was not doing the steps correctly, and suddenly Farah Khan from a distance shouted at them and told them that it was only Rani who was doing it correctly and then the suddenly Rani became the choreographer and taught the two of them the steps.
Addressing the distance between the cousins: Kajol and Rani both are cousins, despite that there was this distance between the two of them during the shoot of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and the two were really distant in the early 2000s. Both the actresses opened up on the issue. Kajol said, ‘It was an organic distance and where work is concerned, I think it’s more that both of us liked where we were’. Adding more to what Kajol said, Rani shared, ‘I have known her as a kid and she is always Kajol did for me. And it was a bit strange and I guess when you grow up and grow apart, you don’t really know the reason why. Because we didn’t meet that often because Kajol didi used to stay in town and we were in Juhu, so me and Tanisha were much closer, we are still but Kajol didi was always closer to the boys of the family, like my brother and all of them.
Aditya Chopra and Adira are no show for the paps: Ever wondered how we never spot Aditya Chopra or Adira his and Rani’s daughter despite the paps being everywhere all the time? Well, Rani has spilt the beans on that finally. Rani shared, ‘I tell them (paps) don’t take baby’s pictures and they look at my eyes and get scared. I have to thank all the paparazzi and all the media people, they really love me because they kind of respect that and they know how Adi is and it was our decision together that we didn’t want Adira to be photographed because we have a different idea of how we want to raise Adira so that Adira doesn’t feel privileged or she doesn’t feel very special in school and she feels like any other kid and she doesn’t get extra attention and that was something that Adi and I wanted for her.
Even when the three of them are travelling together as a family, she shared that she walks out of the airport first so that Aditya and Adira can walk out without being noticed by the paps.
Age discrimination in Bollywood: Well, we all know it’s a Bollywood thing now. Elder actors are paired with young actresses. Sharing her opinion on this Rani said, ‘It’s the truth of cinema and not particularly the cinema of the world but Indian Cinema.’ Adding to Rani’s point, Kajol shared, ‘It’s the truth of society actually. You have older men having younger wives and nobody raises an eyebrow. You’ve had 30-year-old men getting married to 13-year-old girls for like 100’s of years.’ Rani also added, ‘I think it’s what we want to accept and what we don’t want to accept. So I think it comes from a collective thought process that has been told to us from childhood and that is what we are following because we are not using our brains.’