You cant hurry love, No, you just have to wait; She said love don’t come easy, it’s a game of give and take

Diana Ross’s love song pretty much sums up the theme of the CNN-IBN Valentine’s Day special show Celebrating Love. Moderated by Anuradha SenGupta, the show saw real-life celebrity couple Kajol and Ajay Devgan - making their first public appearance together on Indian television – talk about love, marriage and their upcoming film U Me Aur Hum.

They were joined on the show by three more couples whose love stories are as intriguing and interesting as the concept of love - Srija and Shirish from Hyderabad, Daniella and Rahul from New Delhi and Namrata and Yogesh, also from New Delhi.

Given below is an excerpt from the chat with Ajay and Kajol, followed by the complete video of the show.

Anuradha SenGupta: U Me Aur Hum sees you both together after seven years. I am an Ajay Devgan fan and of his movies like Omkara, Company and Khaki. When you decided to pick your first movie to direct, the fact that you chose romance – ‘love at first sight’ – surprises me.

Ajay: I didn’t decide I wanted to direct first and then decided the plot. I had something in my which I wanted to speak about. I had an idea. I wanted to speak about love, positively. I thought we were missing a lot of positivity and we discussed all problems except love. So I wanted to say something and decided I might as well say it myself.

SenGupta: Is it something we are missing, Kajol? Is he a romantic guy and we don’t know about it?

Kajol (laughs): Umm…The fact that I am hesitating should tell you a lot. I think he required a lot of training and that’s why it took us seven years to make U Me Aur Hum. I think he believes in the essence of romance more than anything else. I think he believes deep down that love is about – umm – jaise bolte hain, nibhana padta hai (one has to get by).

Ajay: It’s not about talking, it’s about action. And that’s what I believe in. It’s in subtle things and not in the big things. You can just figure out if the other person loves you through those subtle things.

Kajol: You don’t have to give her a diamond ring to prove that you love her.

SenGupta: (to Ajay) You just said positivity. In you director’s quote you say and I quote, ‘The primary reason for me to make this film is about positivity. People have become cynical and less optimistic than before.’ Why do you think that true love is not in such demand these days?

Ajay: I am not saying it’s not in demand. But when you read papers and hear people talk, you just hear about things not working out, divorces happening and not getting along…

Kajol: When you get married you go in thinking, ‘Oh my God! What am I going to do and I will get divorced.’ So you are already preparing yourself before hand.

Ajay: What I am trying to say is that if you believe in love, you believe in soulmates. And if you believe in soulmates, why can’t you also believe that when people start seeing each other, souls recognise souls and brain doesn’t even think.

SenGupta: Are you trying to say that we are over-analysing?

Ajay: We are over-analysing. We need proof for everything. Why do we need proof for everything? Let some things just be. It’s more romantic that way.

SenGupta: Kajol, I have heard that you devour romances - Books, period romances.

Kajol: Oh yes. I love them completely.

SenGupta: Given what we have just been talking about, do you think that “true love” is available more easily and freely in books and less easily in real life?

Kajol: I don’t think so at all. I think people do find true love. It’s just that they don’t want to work towards it. They go into it thinking of a pre-nuptial agreement before getting married. The point is, you want to get married because you believe that you will want to be with the person when you are 60. That’s the theory and that’s the reason why you should get married. And if that’s not the reason, don’t get married.

Ajay: Two people meeting is destiny but being together is not destiny. For that, you have to work on it.

Kajol: Exactly! You have to work on it. Falling in love is easy.

Ajay: You have to make an effort in everything, in work or whatever else we do.

SenGupta: But for that, we have to blame you guys and the Hindi movies. Because all the movies say 'The End' where the actual story begins, isn’t it?

Ajay (laughs): 'The End' is for the audiences to see and go home and start their own story. My film does not really end. At least the emotion does not end. That’s what my title also says: When you and me become hum, a relationship survives. If ‘you’ stays ‘you’ and ‘me’ stays ‘me’, the relationship will eventually end. In spite of that ‘you’ have to be ‘you’ and ‘me’ has to be ‘me’.

Watch Video: Celebrating Love, the complete show