Favourite role: Being a mom

Life’s biggest change

Actress Juhi Chawla recognises the fact that motherhood brings many changes in a woman’s life – be it personal or professional – but mostly they are for good Mom’s always there Nobody understands the importance of mother more than the one who’s lost her. Ask Juhi Chawla about losing her mom and she says, “Nobody in the world can replace your mother and you only realise that when she is not around anymore. She is such a comforting presence. I loved to hug her and sleep.”

Balancing act

Working mom has become the norm and with so many actresses making a comeback in the industry, the unpredictable schedules make it difficult for our glamour’s moms to maintain the balancing act. “There have been times when I have to travel for work and children are at home without any family member. I do have a lot of staff, but having family around is comforting. So sometimes my in-laws step in to help,” Juhi says adding more about change of heart for glamour roles. “I was very fortunate to get good work as I never wanted to be the girl that I was 15 years ago. I want to do roles that relate to my life also. I was very fortunate that I got films like

Gulab Gang, things that I could enjoy doing on the sets as they suited me. I don’t want to be in every film and go to work every day. I like to spend time with my family or doing social work. But my work is also important and it give me a little zing in my life,” Juhi says.

How we evolve

From god-fearing, homely to protecting moms, actresses have moved on from their glamorous avatar and some say they are giving the heroes run for their money in their uber-strong roles. “I beg to differ, there are very few films like that. The majority of the films still have the male actor playing the hero. These are just a few films that have women playing a protagonist. But on the other hand how many films do you see now-a-days where you have family as a part of the story. We are not making films with Bhaabi and Bhaiya and the whole family as a unit. The films now just have the boy and the girl and they are very vague and fake,” Juhi discards the premise. She did a non-glamorous role in Gulaab Gang as a shrewd politician. “As women our marriage and motherhood change us. We evolve as a person. I was not the same person that I was before my kids were born. Now I like roles that are more rooted in reality and have some nice message, whether about love or strength or emotion or something funny. Your life takes on more meaning and that reflects on the screen as well,” the actress says.

My body, my choice

With the constant pressure on actresses to maintain that perfect figure, natural body changes after childbirth are subjected to extreme criticism. But Juhi ignores such jibes on women. “On one hand, internet gives us so much of information and then there is an entire dark side to it where anonymous people can troll anyone. People should imbibe the good part of the net and the rest they should be ignore,” Juhi advises.