She rocked the 90’s with several movies under her kitty, with the then biggest stars of Bollywood. Today after beating cancer, she makes a graceful return to our screens with Zee5’s The Broken News series, where she will be seen playing the role of Amina Qureshi a news broadcaster.
Our Editor caught up with Sonali Bendre Behl during her live radio show for Leeds’ Fever FM, where Sonali instantly crooned to her famous Major Saab soundtrack ‘pyaar kiya to nibhana’ and got stuck right in about her brand-new series The Broken News. Here are excerpts from the interview.
This is your OTT debut, but also, it’s been seven years since you got back into acting, what was the first day on sets like for you?
It was not chaotic, but there was a sense of nervousness, and it was scary. I was nervous because I was doing this after a very long time. Everybody said that once you have done it you can always get back – it’s like cycling you never forget. But that’s everybody else saying it. Till you don’t go through it you don’t believe it and you’re always going to be nervous, that ‘am I going to pull this off?’ I was scared because one night earlier, I got to know we were going to do one of the most important scenes in the show, so I was hoping I would smooth myself into a walking shot here and something else but then suddenly I realised I had these lines, and I was doing this important scene. I was like oh my God, how am I going to do this? I was like can we not do this at some other point? My director was like, I have my light coming in at this time and so I need to do this scene at that time etc.
He said, but don’t worry by the time you finish from this scene you will have no doubts about what your character is like, and he was absolutely right about it. That night was difficult – I walked in on the set, but by the time I finished the scene – oh it was such an amazing feeling and by the time I finished my first day, I was like why have I been away for so long!
It’s an incredibly relevant script which deals with the clash between ethical and sensationalist and invasive news, how did this role land for you and what fascinated you about your character Amina Qureshi?
What interested me was the story. I wanted to be part of this ensemble because of what this series is talking about. As you said it is so relevant to today’s times. It’s what is happening around us. It’s not about what you said or just about the journalist being ethical or non-ethical. It’s something a little bit more than that. It’s a mirror we are holding up to society, journalists, and the editors (which is what I play). We are all part of this society. We are all human beings. So somewhere what this story does is that it takes viewers behind the scenes into the newsroom and what happens in the newsroom. There’s so much drama in the newsroom. It’s human drama. The viewers when taken behind the scenes of the newsroom they get to see everyone is flawed. But the viewer has to understand that it can be flawed, and that the viewer needs to do their own due diligence. It is the situation and what you make of it. The show shows that what you make of this information is on you and you choose to see as a viewer – it’s a business, it’s the economics – what you demand is going to be supply. So, you as the viewer needs to be aware of what you are demanding.
If you had to give us some information from the sets on your co-stars Shriya and Jaideep, what would you choose, sensationalism or ethical news?
I think I would stick to sensationalism about them. What fun (laughs). It was amazing working with them, they are wonderful co-stars. It was very exciting, I really want to work with new talent, be it actors, writers or directors because there are just amazing things happening where new talent is concerned. Suddenly there is a burst of places where you can tell your stories and different voices can be heard, It’s very exciting for me. It was great learning
You’re quiet an inspiration for every working woman and family woman out there, to have gone through the health challenges you have and now getting back to business with such grace. How do you feel about your journey till date?
What I have understood from the second chance that I got is that you need to be true to yourself. That kind of truth is very important in life and every aspect of life. We talk about sach and facts in the show, and in the same way in our lives also that truth is very important. We can all sweep things under the carpet, and we can behave like and ostrich and not really acknowledge what we don’t want to. It’s not always comfortable to acknowledge the truth, but we need to be truthful to ourselves and till we don’t acknowledge the truth we won’t find a way out; we will just keep getting trapped and end up in the same situations.
The Broken News is available to stream on Zee5
You can watch the full interview with Sonali below
