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, who falls in love with Sadanah's character against her parents' disapproval.
The film turned out to be a box office flop, but Kajol's performance was noticed and she was signed for Abbas-Mustan's Baazigar (1993), which emerged as the fourth highest-grossing film of the year with revenues of ₹182.5 million (US$2.6 million).
Inspired by the American film A Kiss Before Dying, the film co-starred Shah Rukh Khan and Shilpa Shetty, and saw Kajol in the role of Priya Chopra, a young woman who falls in love with her sister's murderer, unaware of his identity.
Baazigar marked the first of her many collaborations with Khan.
Although her performance drew critical attention, Kajol was criticised for her look, which some critics deemed "awful".
