| Juhi Chawla |
Look who's back!
After a long hiatus, Juhi Chawla is all set to return to Bollywood with Onir and Nikhil Advani's next
Subhash K Jha
After staying away from the limelight for so long, Juhi Chawla will now make an appearance in Onir's Bas Ek Pal and Nikhil Advani's Salaam-e-Ishq.
"I don't want to do roles that don't enthuse me. I'd rather be at home because I've such wonderful things happening in my life. I don't want to enter the studios wishing I were at home," says Juhi. "I only want to do scripts that touch me. That's why I accepted Bas Ek Pal and Salaam-e-Ishq. Also, I can't do all the things that I did earlier. Times have changed. I'm older and, hopefully, wiser. I'd look silly prancing around." The journey has been rewarding though. "Aamir Khan se Rehaan Engineer tak….," Juhi says, about her first co-star, in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, and her latest co-star in Bas Ek Pal.
Talking about the forthcoming Bas Ek Pal, Juhi is working with Sanjay Suri again. "He plays my friend this time. After being my brother in My Brother…Nikhil, our pair would've caused some awkwardness. I'm actually paired with Rehaan Engineer who was a revelation. When I met him the first time I wondered whether we'd look compatible on screen. However, the moment the camera was on, Rehaan was completely in control," she says.
Juhi says that Bas… has been a learning experience for her. "I enjoyed it because I got to work with actors I hadn't worked with before. The same goes for Salaam-e-Ishq. My track here is with an old colleague, Anil Kapoor. It was like old times. The same old Anilji….it felt good and familiar," says Juhi.
Juhi says she doesn't crave for too much work now. "I like it the way it is right now. Not too much, not too little…This way I've time for everything I want to do. If a good role comes up I'm happy to do it. Earlier I chose quantity over quality. Not any more," she says. This possibly explains why she refused to do a comedy with Anant Mahadevan. "He has an excellent script. But somehow I don't feel it's right for me. I love doing comedy. But this role would've suited me a few years ago. I'm don't have any false illusions about my age. I'm married and have kids. The audience knows that as well as I do. So I'd like to do roles that suit my real-life role. For instance, I was happy doing the cameo with Shah Rukh in Paheli." These days she gets offers to play the older woman. "That's what suits me. For instance my track in Salaam-e-Ishq is post-marriage, whereas the other couples have pre-marriage tracks," she says. Juhi has agreed to do. "Choreographer Ganesh Acharya is directing a film called Swami where I star with Mithun Chakraborty. The other film is Vivek Sharma's Bhootnath where I play a mom."
"I have done a lot of movies. Some were good, some wonderful, others ridiculous. I can't believe, I actually did some of the films that I did! I can't make the same mistakes at this point in my career," she laughs. Although she is hardly in touch with the film industry, she continues to share a wonderful rapport with Shah Rukh Khan. "Then there's Aziz Mirza who's like a father figure to me. I'd like to work with him again… He's my kind of director. But that's it. I live in town and the film industry is in another world."
Itti Si Khushi Sab TV
Bade Achhe Lagte Hain
54