The irrepressible and refreshingly honest Kajol is always a delight to talk to. Never known to mince words, Kajol is the face of ’90s Bollywood romance, and along with Shah Rukh Khan, is still one of Hindi film’s most loved onscreen pairs.

Now, as she has been doing over the last few years, Kajol has moved away from her sweet Simran image to star in Lust Stories 2, the second instalment in the four-in-one Netflix anthology that explores passion, love and female desire. Kajol’s segment, titled Tilchitta, has her playing a mother and wife who gains agency and decides to take things into her own hands after suffering physical and emotional abuse from her husband for decades.

This month, Kajol will also feature in The Trial, the Hindi adaptation of the smash-hit show The Good Wife, all set to premiere on Disney+Hotstar. t2oS caught up with Kajol for a chat on testing new waters, how she can never be separated from her books and why actors, and not stars, are having a moment.

Kajol in Lust Stories 2, now streaming on Netflix

You haven’t really done anything like Lust Stories 2 in a career spanning over three decades....

The moment it was announced that I am going to be a part of the Lust Stories anthology, I had most people who are close to me asking me: ‘You?! Really?! Why?! How?! Who saw you like this?! (Laughs)

And it is true. This is something I have definitely not done before. It completely moves away from what I have played so far in my career of a few decades. It’s a different role, it’s a different kind of role. It’s been interesting to play someone like that for a change. I have been pretty intrigued by this career turn and let’s see where it takes me now.

At this stage of your career, are you looking to constantly surprise the audience with the choices that you make? Have you ever picked a role just to shut down naysayers?

My career and my choices have never been a rebellion. They have never been a reaction to what anybody might say, whether it’s the audience or my family and friends. I have always made the choices that I have liked, that I have trusted my gut with and which have worked for me. There has never been that much thought given to what anybody else will say or do in my place or say or do to me. I have never catered to what anyone has thought I should be doing. My attitude has always been: ‘Just live your life and I will live my life.’ My decisions are my own. I shoulder both the responsibility and the results of my choices. Credit, discredit... everything is mine! (Laughs)

But it’s always good to surprise people, right?

Absolutely! It’s not only good to surprise people... it’s also necessary to surprise oneself from time to time. I constantly ask myself: ‘Can I do this? can I not do this? Is it possible for me?’ Honestly, I was a little hesitant about taking on Lust Stories 2 because I wasn’t sure if I would be comfortable enough doing it and playing this part that I haven’t attempted before. There is a hichki in my throat that always comes up when I am making these decisions, and that was a lot more while I was pondering over whether I should do Lust Stories 2. But I trust Amit (Ravindernath Sharma, director). I always knew that mujhe hichki ho rahi hain toh usko double hichki ho rahi hogi! I knew he would make me feel comfortable doing what I did in this series.

Besides the character, what made you opt to be a part of Lust Stories 2?

A good director always makes a difference to me, and Amit is an outstanding director. At this stage of my life and career, I am very, very particular about the kind of people I work with. They need to be people I can collaborate with well and communicate with, and also those who make sure that they are banking on more than just my performance. The project shouldn’t hinge on my performance alone... it should be about the whole film overall.

It matters to me who directs a film, it matters to me who produces it and the kind of backing it has. I have been a big admirer of Kumud Mishra’s work and he has been a great co-star in Lust Stories 2. He’s a fabulous actor. I always knew that if cast together, we would always end up doing good work.

We have seen women increasingly gaining agency on the Indian screen. Do you think the Indian audience has evolved enough to appreciate women expressing their sexual desires on screen?

I think we have definitely opened up to the conversation... I wouldn’t say that things have changed completely, and it is anyway not possible for such things to change overnight. But a conversation has well and truly been initiated and that is what the whole point of Lust Stories as a series is... that you are questioning yourself and you are questioning everything around you. When people ask: ‘Is this right? Is this wrong?’ in itself shows that there is a step in the right direction. The fact that we, as makers, have made our point and that the lesson has been learnt.

Anything that you have watched recently that impressed you with how it shows women in a commanding and powerful space?

Honestly, I really don’t watch anything! I am terrible at that. I am more of a reader than a watcher. It’s been ages since I watched anything because I am either working or I am busy at home or I have a book in my hand. But from where I am standing, from all the films in the recent past that I have heard about, the fact that we had a film on a female cricketer (Shabaash Mithu, starring Taapsee Pannu as former Indian cricket captain Mithali Raj) is a major first step. It was a film that didn’t do well, but at least someone made it, at least someone backed it and thought that it was a subject worth bringing to the screen. I think PS I and PS II (Ponniyin Selvan) are also very powerful films that showcase women very strongly. We got to see Ash (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) in an amazingly powerful light. It was a fantastical world, but it had very powerful female characters.

The fact that you have retained your love for books is commendable in today’s world where we are fast losing readers...

I think I will always be a book person... nothing is ever going to change that. Books and my love for reading are things that can’t ever be taken away from me.

Your last few projects — Tribhanga, Devi — have been on streaming. What has the medium presented to you in terms of opportunity and diversity that you hadn’t been offered all these years?

I think it’s a different world, altogether. No one is just dependent on cinema now. We are intermixing as well, which is fabulous because now we are in a space where we know that a film has the capability to release both in theatres and on streaming platforms.

It’s a fabulous time for actors all around. Of late, we have had a boom in the kind of films that demand actors to be cast, rather than stars. I am not saying that one can’t be the other, but the emphasis on casting the right actor for the right part is increasing, and that’s such a fabulous thing.

As female actors, we are in this nice space where you are cast not based on whether you have a perfect nose or not. That’s such a huge relief for me! (Laughs) I think this is a huge change, I think it has brought about a change in the diversity of people who are now called successful. I love that! I love the fact that there are so many people who deserve to be stars, who deserve to be where they are today. We now have stars in their own right who have got to where they have just because they are talented.

Do you feel that you have a storyteller in you?

I would like to write something for sure. I don’t know when that will happen, but I do want to write at some point. As far as directing is concerned, I don’t think I have the patience or the temperament for it. Directing is very, very hard work. If I do direct, it will have to be a murder mystery where everyone gets killed on set! (Laughs) But then again, never say never. Maybe I will direct someday, but as of now, it’s a far, far possibility.