SONALI BENDRE :
I'M VERY SERIOUS ABOUT MY WORK

Naturally, the first question which comes to your mind when you meet her is : What is the secret of her success? “May be, I am good at my work,” Sonali smiles. “So though most of my films did not do too well, people appreciated the fact that I had given a reasonably good performance and they signed me on for other projects.”

Unlike other stars who feel insecure after every flop, Sonali never felt the jitters. “To tell you frankly, I never had the time to ponder over the failure of my films, as new assignments were always pouring in and I was busy shooting round-the-clock. If I had a lot of time on my hands, then may be the failure of my films might have affected me. But I had no reason to complain. I was signing better films, getting better roles and good money. So instead of crying over spilt milk, I was preparing for a better tomorrow,” she asserts.

The general impression about Sonali is that she doesn’t take her work seriously. And this impression was created by none other than Sonali herself who had made a statement to this effect sometime ago. Not only had she admitted frankly that she was not a good actress but also confessed that she was into acting for the heck of it. Naturally, this resulted in getting her roles which though glamorous did not have much scope for histrionics. “I don’t know why everyone just arrived at the conclusion that I am not serious about my work,” says Sonali defensively. “When I said that I was not good at acting what I meant was that I thought there was scope for improvement. That does not mean that I am bad at what I am doing. Probably it was my mistake. I should have phrased my sentences differently. But I think anybody who has even basic intelligence will realise that I am very serious about my work."

Sonali points out that she has not taken a holiday for the last four years. She has been working twenty hours a day. "Though I love reading, because of lack of time I had to give up this hobby,” she informs.

She nearly lost her life in an accident and was told to take three months bed rest but was back on the sets in twenty days. The accident occured on Rajkumar Kohli’s sets two years ago. "I almost lost my life, but I did not make a noise about it so nobody took it seriously. The irony is that the things which should be taken seriously are not, while things which I say lightly, are taken seriously. The fact is that I love my work and take it very seriously. If I wanted I could have made amazing amount of money by signing South Indian films, signing any and every film which came my way. But I cut down on my work two years ago. I signed only select films. And you will see the results now. I have a great line up of films this year,” she says optimistically.

Sonlai reminds you that she was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth. She comes from a very ordinary family and came into the film industry because she wanted to make money. But today I am making hardly any money and the reason behind that is that now I want to do only quality work. Why should I do only select films if I was not serious about my work?” she asks.

Sonali’s immediate release is Duplicate opposite Shah Rukh Khan. “It is a very interesting role that of a villain’s moll - Lily," she informs.

This is her third film with Mahesh Bhatt and she claims that she has always enjoyed working with him. "But to work with him in this film was a real treat. The film is targetted towards young children. All of us had to keep this in mind when enacting any scene. And the scenes turned out to be very hilarious and interesting. I am sure this film will do well,” she crosses her fingers.

This is her second film with Shah Rukh. She has worked with him previously in English Babu Desi Mem. “But I enjoyed working with him in this film much more, because during English Babu... I was very tense. At that time I was too raw, too new, so I did not enjoy myself too much. But I really enjoyed myself during Duplicate. Shah Rukh is great fun, a wonderful co-star,” she beams.

Recently, Sonali has signed Rajshri’s film, Hum Hain Saath Saath. Naturally, she is excited about this film. “I was on top of the world when the director, Sooraj Barjatya told me that he was signing me because he felt that only I could do justice to the role. So far I had worked opposite almost every hero except Salman Khan. In this film I am opposite Salman,” she says happily.

Sonali’s other films which will be releasing this year are Sarfarosh opposite Aamir Khan, Major Saab with Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgan and Angaaray and Dahak opposite Akshay Kumar.

"So far I don’t have even one mega hit. But, I am sure I will land one soon,” Sonali concludes.