Veteran star Sonali Bendre has appeared in many blockbuster movies such as Hum Saath-Saath Hain, Naaraaz, Sapoot, and Tarazu. In a recent chat with India Today, the actress discussed feeling like a “caricature” in her 1998 film Duplicate. The Mahesh Bhatt directorial featured Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla in pivotal roles. Reflecting on the movie, Sonali remarked, “There was a film I was doing at that time called Duplicate where I was approached to play a grey character in some way. It was very exciting and challenging for me to portray that character. We started preparing for the role in that way and also started shooting it accordingly, but slowly, as things moved, I felt I became a caricature and not really the grey character I was supposed to play.”
“Every time a Duplicate song is played and people mention the film, the thing that I remember the most is the fact that how much a story can get de-railed and how much you can start with something and where it goes. And, for me, that was a huge learning. As time goes by, you start thinking whether I misinterpreted something or it was the other way around. But then, as you go forward, sometimes you do things for that paycheck, but other than that, in my second innings, I don’t want to be slotted and boxed, and I want to do characters that break this stereotype,” Sonali Bendre added.
In that same interview, Sonali Bendre also talked about the evolving relationship between actors and the media over the years. She commented, “It was always easier to come up with stories. Trust me on that, it was easier to come up with rumours back then and fake news was always around. Irrespective of the relationship between an actor and a journalist, stories around actors that were not always true were floating high even back in the day. It’s become a lot more controlled now. Today, because of AI and other things, it’s easier to spot fake news in 10 minutes but earlier it would take 10 years to figure out whether the news was fake or real.”
Sonali Bendre will be next seen in The Broken News Season 2.