Juhi Chawla is always remembered for her bubbly image, smiling face and beautiful personality. This former Miss India made her Bollywood debut opposite Aamir Khan.

She has given best of her performances in many memorable films. This 43 years old lady has now crossed the stage of insecurity after delivering many hits in a row.

Juhi Chawla

Her one time competitor Manisha Koirala is appearing with her in an upcoming film ‘I Am’ and surprisingly they both gelled well with each other. This is for the first time that theses ladies are coming together in a film.

Was there any kind of competition between the two? ‘Manisha Koirala is a very sweet and chilled out person; so it was great working with her. Also, we are not in any kind of rat race now. We have crossed that stage when there were comparisons and you yourself felt a little insecure because there was this other really pretty girl vying for the same roles,’ said Juhi Chawla.

So was there a sense of jealously or competition in yesteryears? ‘At that time, you used to compare who has got better songs, who has got better and more successful films, but we have crossed that stage. That time I didn’t know her. I had met her very briefly. But now, when I worked with her, we were very much at ease with each other,’ she added.

Besdies Manisha, Juhi will share the screen space with Sanjay Suri, Purab Kohli, Rahul Bose and Nandita Das in Onir’s ‘I Am’. Juhi is playing an important character in the film where she is donning the character of a Kashmiri Pandit girl Megha, who returns to Srinagar with her family after many years after fleeing the city because of militancy.

‘She goes back with anger and a little bit of resentment because of what she and her family had to go through. Then she meets her childhood friend, who is a Muslim girl and who stayed back, and in the three days that they spend together, Megha realizes she is not the only one who has lost and suffered,” revealed Juhi about her character in the film.

Juhi Chawla

Juhi Chawla’s part was shot in Kashmir, so the experience might have been thrilling? ‘I had different experiences. Although in the markets everything went on normally, at every corner there were barricades, army jeeps, barbed wires, so you do feel that everything is right but not completely right. You are at peace but there is a sense that anything might happen any time,’ she said.

‘On the other hand, the locals were so happy to see us shooting because now not too many shootings happen there. People were excited that film crews are again coming back.

‘Also, we had to be careful with our volumes. There were a few dialogues for my character that might not have been liked by people watching the shoot. In the film, they hold meaning, but the bystander wouldn’t have understood that because he or she has not seen the film. So we didn’t want to get into a problem,’ she said.

‘I was quite happy with my role because the casting for this film is very right. For instance, no one will be able to imagine me in Afia’s role (Nandita Das’s character) because Nandita is perfect for it,’ added Juhi Chawla.

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