Kajal Aggarwal on The India Story, Ramayana: I do films now to make my son proud

Gearing up for The India Story and Ramayana, Kajal Aggarwal shares how becoming a mother has changed her work choices, and her son's obsession with Ramayana

Kajal Aggarwal has quite a busy year ahead with two Hindi releases, The India Story with Shreyas Talpade this month and Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana: Part 1 which arrives on Diwali, in the pipeline. While she seems occupied with her work, the actor insists her choice of work has been quite conscious and it has evolved ever since she became a mother to son Neil Kitchlu with husband, entrepreneur Gautam Kitchlu.

“After getting married and having my own family and child, the responsibility upon my shoulders is a lot more. Now, when I'm thinking about a project, I think of it from my child’s point of view. He should be proud of mama. I want him to see a film and say that this was a great piece of work that my mother was a part of. So, there's more responsibility and awareness,” Kajal Aggarwal says.

That is why her excitement for Ramayana is also a lot more. She shares, “My son is obsessed with Ramayana. He enacts it and does the whole Ramleela at home in front of me daily. When I told him about it, he was so excited. And interestingly, his favourite character is Ravana and I am playing his wife Mandodari. He’s going to be five by the time part 2 comes out and I have told him that it’s going to be his first film in the theatre.” Ramayana will see Kajal play Yash's wife, who takes on the character of Ravan opposite Ranbir Kapoor's Ram.

Being a mother, the concept of her upcoming film The India Story also has left a more lasting impact on him. The film talks about the unscrupulous world of pesticide corruption, and for Kajal, it has made her more aware about the food that comes to her home. “We all know about these things, we all hear about it but that is very hand off hand sort of information. We don’t really go to the depth of truly understanding what we are eating and what is going in it. Our story is all backed by relevant research and I was shell shocked. It was an eye opener for me. Right there and then I decided what are the ingredients in my pantry that I want to keep, what are the things that I'm going to be okay giving my child and what are the things that I'm absolutely not okay giving him,” she ends.