Early work (1992–1994) Kajol made her acting debut at age 17 in the 1992 romantic drama
Bekhudi alongside another debutant,
Kamal Sadanah, and her mother Tanuja. Kajol played Radhika, who falls in love with Sadanah's character against her parents' disapproval. The film turned out to be a box office flop, The following year, she was cast in
Abbas–Mustan's crime thriller
Baazigar (1993), the fourth-highest-grossing film of the year with revenues of . Co-starring
Shah Rukh Khan and
Shilpa Shetty, the film had Kajol in the role of Priya Chopra, a young woman who falls in love with her sister's murderer, unaware of his identity. Kajol's performance in the film drew critical attention. In 1994, Kajol appeared in
Udhaar Ki Zindagi as an orphaned girl who visits her estranged grandparents (
Jeetendra and
Moushumi Chatterjee). It failed to do well at the box office, however, Kajol was named the
Best Actress (Hindi) by the
Bengal Film Journalists' Association. The film was an emotionally draining experience for Kajol, and she later maintained that it had affected her so deeply that after shooting ended, she was on the verge of a crisis. Consequently, she made a deliberate decision to sign up for lighter films in which she would have roles of minimal importance and no intense dramatic efforts, including
Hulchul,
Gundaraj, and
Karan Arjun—all released a year later. She gained wider public recognition for her role in
Yeh Dillagi, a romance produced by
Yash Raj Films and based on the 1953 American play
Sabrina Fair. She starred as Sapna, a chauffeur's daughter, who becomes a model and catches the interest of the two sons of her father's employers (
Akshay Kumar and
Saif Ali Khan). A financial success,
Yeh Dillagi proved to be a breakthrough for Kajol, earning her a first
Best Actress nomination at the annual
Filmfare Awards.
The Indian Express took note of her believable performance, and
Screen concluded that
Yeh Dillagi had changed her screen persona from a
girl next door to a beauty extraordinaire.
Established actress (1995–1998) In 1995, Kajol had two major commercial successes:
Karan Arjun and
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. Kajol's next releases—
Taaqat,
Hulchul and
Gundaraj—underperformed at the box office; In
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, Kajol's final 1995 release, Shah Rukh Khan and she starred as
nonresident Indians from London who fall in love during a trip across Europe and reunite in India to persuade her conservative father to call off her upcoming arranged marriage. Kajol spoke of her attachment to the project and her full emotional involvement with her character, Simran. One of the most successful films of all-time in India, it has been continuously running in Mumbai and, having surpassed 1000 weeks of screening in 2014, became the longest-running Indian film ever. Equally popular with critics, the film earned ten
Filmfare Awards, including a first Best Actress for Kajol. It has been voted one of the best films ever made in polls by the
British Film Institute. Raja Sen from
Rediff.com thought Kajol was well-cast as Simran, arguing that "the real-as-life actress bringing warmth and credulity to the initially prudish and reluctant Simran". 1996 saw her in the poorly received action film
Bambai Ka Babu. In 1997, Kajol's portrayal of Isha Diwan, an obsessive lover turned psychopathic serial killer, in
Gupt: The Hidden Truth, was labelled by critics a turning point. The director,
Rajiv Rai, said that he "tapped the versatile artistry in Kajol", commending her for the finesse she brought to the part. The suspense thriller, also starring
Bobby Deol and
Manisha Koirala, was a mainstream success.
India Today noted Kajol for outpacing her co-stars, and
The Times of India wrote in 2016 that she was "probably the first to have broken her
goody-two-shoes image". In 2002, Rediff.com included her performance in its listing of best villain performances. Kajol eventually became the first female actor to be nominated for and win the
Filmfare Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. In later years, Kajol said she accepted the part to avoid
typecasting and expressed her desire to play more roles of the type. Kajol replaced
Madhuri Dixit to play the lead opposite
Prabhu Deva and
Arvind Swamy in
Rajiv Menon's
Tamil-language romantic musical
Minsara Kanavu. Kajol found dancing alongside Deva (himself a dance choreographer) difficult and she needed dozens of retakes and rehearsals to get the steps right. She played Priya Amalraj, a convent student who aspires to become a
nun, and her voice was dubbed by actress
Revathi.
The Indian Express reviewed: "Kajol is full of beans and fits into her character with commendable ease. Hers is perhaps one of the most expressive faces of the present". While the original version was embraced by audiences, the Hindi-dubbed version of the film (titled
Sapnay) performed averagely. Her next release was
Indra Kumar's comedy-drama
Ishq, alongside
Aamir Khan,
Juhi Chawla and Ajay Devgn. A commercial success, the film won critical praise for the performances of the four leads. (left) and
Shah Rukh Khan at an event for
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 2018 In 1998, Kajol reinforced her status as a leading actress of Hindi cinema by featuring in the three
highest-grossing productions of the year:
Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya,
Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha and
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai; all of which were nominated for the
Filmfare Award for Best Film, with the lattermost winning it.
Pyaar Kiya To Darna Kya, where she played a naïve village girl, released first and won her positive feedback. She next played twin sisters, Sonia and Naina, in
Dushman. Having initially refused the offer due to her lack of comfort shooting the rape scene, she finally accepted it on the condition that a body-double be used in it.
Anees Bazmee's romantic comedy
Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, a remake of the 1995 American film
French Kiss, followed. She played the comic role of Sanjana, a clumsy woman, who travels from
Paris to India in search of her philandering fiancé, but falls for another man (Ajay Devgn). The film became a hit and fetched Kajol another Best Actress nomination at Filmfare that year.
Khalid Mohamed referred to her as "the show's super-saving grace. Bubbly and spontaneous as ever, hers is a perfectly balanced performance, rescuing even the loudest scenes from going over the top." The biggest success of 1998 for Kajol was her final release of that year,
Karan Johar's directorial debut,
Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. it emerged as an all-time blockbuster in both India and overseas. Kajol played Anjali Sharma, a tomboyish college student who is secretly in love with her best friend from college (Shah Rukh Khan). The story follows their renewed encounter years later when he is widowed and she has transformed her appearance and is already engaged to marry someone else. Critics considered Kajol's performance bold and convincing, despite an otherwise unrealistic plot. She won her second Best Actress award at the
44th Filmfare Awards and first
Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female for her work. In a year-end column,
The Tribune Madhur Mittal reported that Kajol had "emerged as the consummate heroine with her excellent emoting and sensational screen presence in each portrayal".
Decrease in workload (1999–2005) Journalists speculated that the supporting role of the
other woman of Ajay Devgn's character in
Dil Kya Kare, Kajol's first release after marriage, would be "the acid test" for her. She explained that she accepted the role solely "because it had shades of grey". The film met with largely negative reviews, though
Deccan Herald noted her for playing the role with finesse. Commercially too, the film failed to do well. The drama
Hum Aapke Dil Mein Rehte Hain, on the other hand, performed well with critics and audiences. Co-starring
Anil Kapoor, it gave her experience with "the stereotypical, sacrificing woman role" Her final release of the year was
Hote Hote Pyar Ho Gaya. The
Hindustan Times noted her chemistry with
Jackie Shroff but wrote off the film. The following year, Kajol and her husband starred together in his home-production
Raju Chacha, whose plot revolves on the love story between a conman and a governess of three children belonging to a wealthy family. The children's film, with a production cost of , was declared as among the most expensive Hindi films at the time.
Dinesh Raheja wrote of the lack of imagination in the script, which affected the chemistry between Kajol and Ajay Devgn. In Rahul Rawail's
Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi (2001) Kajol played twin sisters who are separated at birth. The film was poorly reviewed as was Kajol's dual role, dismissed as "a double bore".
Roshmila Bhattacharya from
Screen defended Kajol's presence and her energetic performance. Both
Raju Chacha and
Kuch Khatti Kuch Meethi were flops at the box office. She played Anjali Sharma, a young
Punjabi woman from the
Chandni Chowk area who falls for a wealthy man. She identified herself with the character's noisy nature and found similarities between it and that of
Hema Malini in
Sholay (1975). The role required Kajol to speak in
Punjabi, a language she was not fluent in, and although she struggled at first to master it, she achieved the pronunciation and diction with the help of producer
Yash Johar and some of the crew members. Her comic-dramatic performance and Punjabi dialect met with critical acclaim and won her a third Filmfare Award in the Best Actress category.
Ziya Us Salam, in a review for
The Hindu, asserted: "Kajol steals the thunder from under very high noses indeed. With her precise timing and subtle lingering expression, she is a delight all the way." Following
Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kajol took a sabbatical from full-time acting and declined a number of film roles. She has said that she did so to focus on her marriage. Film observers generally perceived at this time that her career was over.
Success with intermittent work (2006–2020) Kunal Kohli's romantic thriller
Fanaa (2006) marked Kajol's return to films. She portrayed Zooni Ali Beg, a blind
Kashmiri woman who unwittingly falls in love with a terrorist (Aamir Khan). The film was promoted as her comeback, a term she disliked saying that she did not retire but only took a break. Upon release, the film was a financial success, grossing against its budget. Both the film and Kajol's performance were received well.
Sudhish Kamath of
The Hindu wrote Kajol is enough of a reason to watch it, and
Deepa Gahlot believed Kajol's conviction in the part made up for the film's flaws.
Fanaa fetched Kajol a fourth Filmfare Award and second Zee Cine Award for Best Actress. She considered her husband's directorial debut
U Me Aur Hum (2008) a special film in her career. In it, she starred as Piya Thapar, a woman suffering from
Alzheimer's disease. Although the film underperformed commercially, she received another Filmfare nomination for Best Actress for her performance.
The Economic Times Gaurav Malini noted that Kajol's "simmering pace and ... recurring amnesiac spells, rather than getting repetitive, add compelling credibility to the story". and
Karan Johar promoting
My Name Is Khan in 2010. Asked by
The Hindu, she described the film as being more intense and different from her earlier projects.Kajol was next cast opposite Shah Rukh Khan in
My Name Is Khan (2010), based on the discrimination faced by
American Muslims after the
9/11 terrorist attacks. It was the first Indian film distributed by
Fox Star Studios. It opened to mixed-to-positive reviews, and emerged as an international success.
My Name Is Khan was screened at the
60th Berlin International Film Festival, the
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, and the
Rome Film Festival. Kajol's portrayal of Mandira, a
Hindu single mother who marries a Muslim man with
Asperger syndrome was praised by Indian and overseas critics.
Rajeev Masand wrote positively of Kajol's sensitive performance, while the
Los Angeles Times found her to be appealing in an emotion-based role. For the film, Kajol won a record-tying fifth Best Actress award at Filmfare. Additionally, she was nominated for the Screen Award for Best Actress, the
Stardust Award for Best Actress in a Drama and the Zee Cine Award for Best Actor – Female. In the same year, Kajol was the protagonist in Siddharth Malhotra's
We Are Family, an adaptation of the 1998 American drama
Stepmom, alongside
Kareena Kapoor and
Arjun Rampal. Kajol played Maya, a character she identified with for being a "control freak" in chase of perfection, and found it largely different from the one played by
Susan Sarandon in the original. Malhotra modelled Maya in part after his grandmother
Bina Rai.
Mayank Shekhar singled out Kajol's performance as being better than Sarandon's, and Rachel Saltz of
The New York Times commented that "her naturalism gives the movie a genuine emotional kick". Kajol's next release that year,
Toonpur Ka Super Hero featured her as Priya Kumar, a woman stuck in a cartoon world. Kajol spoke of the challenge and difficulty dubbing for the film. Dubbed the first Hindi
live-action animated film, the film polarised critics and failed to attract an audience. Her role was dismissed as not having provided her with scope to perform. She followed it with a second hiatus upon the birth of her son in 2010 although she provided voiceover to the opening credits of the Hindi version of the fantasy film
Eega, which released in 2012. Following a five-year absence, Kajol teamed with Shah Rukh Khan for the seventh time in
Rohit Shetty's action romance
Dilwale (2015). She portrayed Meera Dev Malik, the daughter of a mafia don who falls for a man from the rival family. Reviewers were varied in their opinions about the film;
Mint declared it as the "most tiresome film of the year". Kajol's performance drew positive comments despite a lesser character; in the words of Suhani Singh of
India Today, "Kajol is a radiant presence on the screen and delivers what's expected out of her—which is not much."
Dilwale emerged as a major commercial success, grossing more than worldwide, and ranks among of the
highest-grossing Bollywood films of all time. Kajol's performance garnered Best Actress nominations at various award ceremonies, including Filmfare. Later that year, she made her debut as a producer with the Marathi period drama
Vitti Dandu, co-produced by Ajay Devgn and Leena Deore, and exploring the relationship between a grandfather and his grandson. The film won the Best Marathi Film trophy at the
Screen Awards and was well received by critics. In 2017, Kajol starred opposite
Dhanush in
Velaiilla Pattadhari 2, a sequel to the 2014
masala film Velaiilla Pattadhari and her second Tamil-language film after
Minsara Kanavu. She was cast as Vasundhara Parameshwar, the chairwoman of the construction company Vasundhara Constructions. Kajol was somewhat apprehensive about doing the film but eventually accepted the role due to her faith in Dhanush and director
Soundarya Rajinikanth, citing them for giving the bravery she needed to acting in a non-Hindi-language film.
Velaiilla Pattadhari 2 opened to a negative critical reception but succeeded financially. In 2018, Kajol portrayed a
helicopter parent with an aspiration to be a singer who enrolls at her son's (
Riddhi Sen) college to complete her education in the drama
Helicopter Eela, based on
Anand Gandhi's Gujarati play
Beta, Kaagdo. She was particularly drawn to the role for its colourful personality and her relationship with her son. The feature failed commercially, but the performances were appreciated. The same year she dubbed the character
Helen Parr in the animated superhero film
Incredibles 2 Hindi version. By 2020, Kajol said she preferred to consider the importance of character rather than its length. Her first release of the year was the period drama
Tanhaji, co-starring Ajay Devgn and
Saif Ali Khan. Based on the life of
Tanaji Malusare, it went onto become the highest-grossing film of the year, earning . She played Tanhaji's wife Savitribai whom she called a strong character which she found similar to herself. Critics were appreciative of her turn despite her limited screen time. Later in the year, she was seen in her first short film,
Devi, a suspense drama about nine women who stay in one room sheltered from the outer world. It was reviewed positively by critics, and Kajol was singled out for leading the diverse ensemble.
2021 onwards Kajol's next project was
Renuka Shahane's social drama
Tribhanga (2021), which marked her first collaboration with
Netflix. It revolves around the
intergenerational conflict between three women from one family (Kajol,
Mithila Palkar and
Tanvi Azmi), with Kajol starring as headstrong
Odissi dancer. She found resemblance between the relationship of the three leading characters and her own with her mother and daughter. The film and Kajol's performance received positive reviews.
Saibal Chatterjee from
NDTV praised her for providing the thrilling atmosphere the film needs "to keep trundling along at an even pace"; Stutee Ghosh of
The Quint found Azmi and Kajol's strong performances to have "a stunning hold and it's difficult to focus on anyone else when they are in the frame". At the
2nd Filmfare OTT Awards, her performance was nominated in the Best Actress category. In 2022, Kajol starred in
Revathi's
Salaam Venky, a drama about
euthanasia. The film and her performance were well received, but the film emerged as a box office bomb. The following year, Kajol starred in a segment of the Netflix anthology film
Lust Stories 2 and in
Disney+ Hotstar's legal drama series,
The Trial, an adaptation of the American show
The Good Wife. Reviewing the latter, Divya Nair of Rediff.com found her "brilliant" and was appreciative of her chemistry with her co-stars. In
Do Patti (2024), Kajol played a
Bihari police officer investigating a domestic abuse case involving twin sisters (
Kriti Sanon). Kartik Bhardwaj of
The New Indian Express dismissed her role and accent. The following year, Kajol led the mythological horror film
Maa (2025), a spinoff to her husband's 2024 film
Shaitaan. For her role as a protective mother, she drew upon her own experiences with her children. Critics felt that, despite her best efforts, the film's poor writing had constrained Kajol's performance. It performed moderately at the box office. She next starred opposite
Prithviraj Sukumaran in the thriller
Sarzameen, for
JioHotstar which was panned by critics. Kajol will next lead the action film
Maharagni: Queen of Queens. == Off-screen work ==