
Kajol Srinivasan isn’t here to just make you laugh—she’s here to make you think, question, and perhaps, rewire a few beliefs along the way. The Mumbai-based stand-up comic is currently touring with her solo special Freelance Feminist, a fiercely funny and strikingly personal take on feminism, patriarchy and other interesting anecdotes.
The comic speaks to us ahead of her show in Chennai, a city which she considers as her safe place, owing to her Tamil roots.
Kajol explains how her journey into comedy wasn’t planned. “My mom had Parkinson’s for many years and I was her full-time caregiver,” Kajol shares. “When you are a caregiver for so many years, it tends to become your whole life. I didn’t have time for friends, or even for myself. I realised I needed to express something—anything—or I would have sunk into depression.” A chance match on a dating app introduced her to a comedian who promptly signed her up for an open mic. “He said, ‘You’ve got one month, come up with something.’ And that was it.”
Eight years later, she’s taken her life’s many transitions—including breaking out of the ‘good girl’ mould—and turning them into comedy gold. “I grew up trying so hard to be the nice girl—to always be pretty, polite, marry a well-settled man,” she says. “When that didn’t happen, I had to ask myself what I really wanted. My show Freelance Feminist is the story of that journey.”
The show unpacks her own transformation—not to bash men, she clarifies —but to offer a view into the everyday realities women navigate. “I wrote this special for men,” she says. “Women already know what we go through. But I wanted to show men that although we share the same planet, we live in different worlds.”
Beauty standards and ageism are among the key themes of her show. “It’s almost like we owe the world our beauty. I talk a lot about women’s beauty products on stage and compare it to men’s beauty products, which are hilarious,” Kajol shares.
The comic aims to change the beauty narrative of the society we live in. “You could be a neuroscientist, but if you’re not beautiful while doing it, you’ve failed. That’s how society is. I’m trying to change that narrative.” With humour and heart, she breaks down societal myths— one punchline at a time.
“I used to hide my age on stage,” she admits. “I’d pretend to be in my 20s. It didn’t work. I now own my age, my failures, and my story — and the audience relates to that.”
Kajol further explains how she used to have a healthy ego, and how she could not put it down on stage for many years.
“I always wanted to dictate how the audience perceives me. However, in the last five years or so, I have learned to give my ego a break. I have learned to discuss things in my life that are some big failures and to not try to control how audience reacts to that. Now I’ve gotten more open about discussing things that are genuine failures.”
Today, comedy, for Kajol, is not just a career. “It saved me,” she says. “It pulled me out of a dark place. Now, I see nothing else but this in my future.”
INR 299 onwards. June 21. 8 pm. At Trinity Studio, Kodambakkam.
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