Ajay Devgan, Kajol and Tanuja get talking about why it’s truly a woman’s world - and always has been to Shubha Shetty-Saha

Well if Ranbir Kapoor can boast of a family that has more or less dominated Bollywood for four generations now, there’s only one other family of actors that can match them step for step. What started out with the advent of Rattan Bai into Hindi films was a legacy carried forward by her daughter Shobhana Samarth, her daughters Nutan and Tanuja and now holding the flame is Kajol.

And they’ve been more than just women actors - they’ve all been stong women with distinct identities of their own, women who’ve laid down their own terms to live their life and gone ahead and done just that. While Kajol’s grandma Shobhana Samarth defied all conventional rules, mum Tanuja followed suit. It comes as no suprise then that the spirited Kajol carved her own path, even at the risk of being called rebellious.

Luckily she found a husband like Ajay Devgan, who’s has enough strength and resilience of his own to match up to all that woman power in his life. “They are all strong individuals - including my own mother - and I truly respect all of them. My life would be absolutely incomplete if even one of them were not present in it,” says Ajay.

But Kajol isn’t at all carried away the praise and readily credits the Devgans with their due. “Yes, I do come from a family of strong women, but I think even Ajay’s family has women - my mother-in-law and sisters-in-law - who are strong in their own right,” says Kajol. “I think every woman is strong, some show it in a passive way and others aggressively. I am sure in the presence of all these women, my daughter Nysa is going to grow up into a beautiful and strong individual as well.”

Ajay’s mom-in-law Tanuja, who had everyone in the industry in her hey days buzzing about her avante garde sensibilities, has some very mature advice to offer. “Strength is a very relative term. Women are emotionally strong and you never know how any woman will react to a given situation.” Ask Kajol if there have been times when she felt her mother was right and she was wrong and she laughs, “All the time! Since the time I conceived to date. I wish I had my mum’s patience - I sometimes run out of it when I am dealing with Nysa.”

And now, Ajay gets a chance to work with both his wife and mother-in-law - they’ll be the judges for a new dance-based reality show ‘Rock and Roll Family’ on Zee TV. Ask him which woman in his family he is most impressed by and Ajay grins. “I don’t want to rub any of them the wrong way!” To which Kajol adds knowingly: “He’s a smart man. After all, he has to come home!”