The Return of Sonali Bendre

What difference would social media have made if Sonali Bendre’s Anaahat, directed by Amol Palekar, had been released now? The film, co-starring Anant Nag, was released in 2003 and won critical appreciation for its frank treatment of a woman’s sexuality. It gave Bendre, who had become an actor for the pay cheque, a renewed faith in her work, after years of acting in films with dubious financing and unknown producers. “You listen to so many people like your secretary or your producer. People who tell you what to do and what not to do and you follow them because you think they know better,” says Bendre. Not always, she realised. So, she then chose to return after a brief hiatus to television, as an actor and a reality show judge because of the transparency in the television industry. But then cancer and two years of Covid-19 gave her a perspective on the fragility of life. They gave her clarity. “I realised life is for simple things. I cannot move mountains but I can change my world. I realised that I had fallen in love with acting,” she says and she waited for the right script where she could play her age, say something meaningful and still look good (she does). The result? A memorable character in Zee5’s The Broken News, where she is the boss of a news channel that still believes in the news. As Amina Qureshi, she has many mic-drop moments, including one where after a drink with two of her errant colleagues who have just questioned her in an edit meeting, she tells them: “Now, f… off.” “I needed to send the right signal,” she says, about her comeback role. She has become one of the growing number of fine actresses who made their debut in the 1990s in the vast wasteland of ornamental roles for women.

Second Chance

As the maverick Mikhail in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Kaminey (2009), Chandan Roy Sanyal had stunned everyone with his vitality. “There was no social media in those days,” he says, echoing Bendre, “otherwise its impact would have been amplified.” When he played Bhopa in MX Player’s Aashram in 2020, he says, he felt the power of a life-changing role. “Suddenly, my phone was buzzing, my social media was buzzing,” he says. Aashram was a sleeper hit, and with its combination of sex, sleaze and fake spirituality, it has stayed loyal to its audience. Now, in its third season, the series and the boy from Karol Bagh, Delhi, have become etched in the minds of viewers. What does its success show at a time when public displays of religiosity are encouraged? Aashram tells the tale of a fake godman, Baba Nirala, whose flock believes in him, even as he lusts for power and sex. Sanyal has an explanation for the show’s success: “There is such fear of and fascination with self-declared godmen who promise spiritual transformation. Families have lost money, people and time because of this.” He grew up surrounded by aunts who believed in certain godmen, and in the age of Jiddu Krishnamurti and Deepak Chopra. “The whole world came to India for enlightenment,” he says. And then it is directed by someone as socially committed as Prakash Jha, which was perfect for Sanyal who wants to eventually direct his own stories. Sanyal has trained with the best, from Habib Tanvir to Alyque Padamsee to Tim Supple and is open about the auditions he has failed, including for The White Tiger and Victoria & Abdul. “I was almost there,” he says, even as he promises to continue trying to break into the West.

Scene and Heard

Success doesn’t always guarantee visibility in Bollywood. Nushrratt Bharuccha has been delivering critical and commercial hits consistently since the days of working in Luv Ranjan films. While her co-star Kartik Aaryan has breached the A-list as has Ranjan, who is directing Ranbir Kapoor in his new film, Bharuccha still doesn’t get offered the visible symbols of Bollywood success—magazine covers, A-list party invites, and talk fest slots, though she is a great conversationalist and more than easy on the eye. Bollywood’s strange class system, which requires a woman to be cast opposite an A-list star, may well be the cause. It doesn’t seem to bother Bharuccha, who has been working consistently on broadening her repertoire, with the Netflix anthology Ajeeb Daastaans, the horror thriller Chhorii and now the social comedy Janhit Mein Jaari.

BollywoodChandan Roy SanyalcinemaNushrratt BharucchaSonali Bendre