Kajol

“Everyone has the right to their lives and to look the way they want to! Tomorrow I can put on 25 kilos... it's my choice, my body!”

“If you want to lose weight, you have to be obsessed with it. You can't depend upon your dietician, your trainer or various health aids that you have. You have to be organised. And believe me, it isn't that difficult. The first 10 days are terrible because you have to break the lifelong habits that you have made.”

“For me, men and women are different. A man is genetically gifted to pull more than a woman. But at the same time, I don't consider women to be any less than men. In fact, I feel we are far more intelligent than them.”

“I think I am very hands-on mother. I am very strict, and my daughter keeps telling me, 'You are too hard on me,' and I keep telling her, 'I have to be hard because if I am not hard, you will not learn the lessons that I want you to learn.' I think it is really important to be that way.”

“Let's be realistic - 90% of superheroes are male. Personally, I prefer Superman, Batman and Spider-Man to Wonder Woman. Not that I don't like female superheroes, but watching male superheroes gives me a high.”

“If you say one gets influenced watching a character, I think it's foolish. Cinema reflects society; society rarely reflects cinema.”

“When I was 13 or 14, my mother used to gift me books that I was dying to read. Those are my most memorable birthday gifts.”

“I have always been very choosy, but as you grow older, your tolerance for crap becomes less. The role I will do today has to justify the time I take away from my kids and my husband. I love them, spend a lot of time with them and love doing things for them. So to go away for three to six months, I need something equally powerful.”

“One thing I am sure of is that I won't judge a dance reality show.”

“Earlier, looking lighter or slimmer never mattered to me. Frankly, I didn't care. I had more important things to do. But when I figured that it's not that hard, and I have the time, passion and patience to take it up, I jumped onto the health-wagon. I started working out.”

“By the time you're 30, you know who you are inside. You learn to laugh at things you can't change; you learn to be yourself.”

“Make that extra effort for every relationship. Whether it's with your parents, your children, your husband or your friends. It makes a difference to them. I try to give my kids a lot of solo time where I play with them, talk to them, listen to them. Similarly, you give time for your workout. You slot a time for it, no matter what.”

“I don't think any actor can be satisfied. I am still in the learning phase and hope I am always in the learning frame of mind in acting or in anything else that I do. That's what makes life interesting and worth living.”

“I tell my daughter Nyssa, 'You should respect my work, and I will also respect yours when you grow up.' 'Work is worship' is what I have told her.”

“A good project but a poor director will always make a mediocre film, but an average script and good director can make a good film, as he will put in everything to make the film look good.”