Happy Birthday Kajol: Rare and Unseen pictures of the Baazigar Actress

Born into the Mukherjee-Samarth family, she is the daughter of actress Tanuja Samarth and filmmaker Shomu Mukherjee. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including six Filmfare Awards, and alongside her aunt Nutan, she holds the record for most Best Actress wins at the ceremony, with five.

Kajol was born in Bombay (Mumbai) to the Mukherjee-Samarth film family of Bengali-Marathi descent. Her mother, Tanuja, is an actress, while her father Shomu Mukherjee was a film director and producer. Shomu died in 2008 after suffering cardiac arrest.Her younger sister, Tanishaa is also an actress. Her maternal aunt was actress Nutan and her maternal grandmother, Shobhna Samarth, and great grandmother, Rattan Bai, were both involved in Hindi cinema.

Her paternal uncles, Joy Mukherjee and Deb Mukherjee, are film producers, while her paternal and maternal grandfathers, Sashadhar Mukherjee and Kumarsen Samarth, were filmmakers. Kajol's cousins Rani Mukerji, Sharbani Mukherjee and Mohnish Behl are also Bollywood actors; whereas another cousin of hers, Ayan Mukerji is a director.

Kajol made her acting debut at the age of seventeen in the 1992 romantic drama Bekhudi alongside debutante Kamal Sadanah and her mother Tanuja, who played her mother.Kajol played Radhika, a girl who falls in love with Sadanah's character despite her parents' wish for her to marry another man. Although the film turned out to be a box office flop, Kajol's performance was noticed and she was signed for Baazigar (1993), a thriller by Abbas-Mustan.

In 1994, Kajol appeared in the melodrama Udhaar Ki Zindagi, as the granddaughter of the characters played by Jeetendra and Moushumi Chatterjee. The film, which was a remake of the Telugu film, Seetharamaiah Gari Manavaralu, failed to do well at the box office. However, Kajol's performance earned her the BFJA Award for Best Actress.

The film, which was an unofficial remake of the 1954 American film Sabrina, narrated the story of a chauffeur's daughter who becomes a model, and engages in a love triangle between two brothers.The success of Yeh Dillagi proved to be a breakthrough for Kajol, and her performance fetched her a first Best Actress nomination at the annual Filmfare Awards.

In addition to acting in films, Kajol is a social activist and is noted for her work with widows and children, for which she received the Karmaveer Puraskaar in 2008. She has featured as a talent judge for Zee TV's reality show Rock-N-Roll Family and holds a managerial position at Devgn Entertainment and Software Ltd. Kajol has been married to actor Ajay Devgn since 1999, with whom she has two children.