The second act | Sonali Bendre in 'Raakh'
With 'Raakh', Sonali Bendre proves that a powerful performance isn't measured by screen time
The list of ’90s-2000s actresses whose thespian careers have found a second innings thanks to OTT platforms runs long. Sonali Bendre finds a spot in it, though her credits are limited to just two web series—The Broken News (ZEE5) and, more recently, Raakh. “After The Broken News, I was not spoiled for choice,” she says about the show in which she played the editor of a news channel. “And the work that came my way was not what I wanted to do.”
The list of ’90s-2000s actresses whose thespian careers have found a second innings thanks to OTT platforms runs long. Sonali Bendre finds a spot in it, though her credits are limited to just two web series—The Broken News (ZEE5) and, more recently, Raakh. “After The Broken News, I was not spoiled for choice,” she says about the show in which she played the editor of a news channel. “And the work that came my way was not what I wanted to do.”
The list of ’90s-2000s actresses whose thespian careers have found a second innings thanks to OTT platforms runs long. Sonali Bendre finds a spot in it, though her credits are limited to just two web series—The Broken News (ZEE5) and, more recently, Raakh. “After The Broken News, I was not spoiled for choice,” she says about the show in which she played the editor of a news channel. “And the work that came my way was not what I wanted to do.”
At first, she wasn’t too interested in Amazon Prime Video’s Raakh either, given the limited screen time. “But the material was so good, I was like, ‘I can’t let this go to another actor’,” says Bendre. Playing the mother of two teenagers whose brutal murder shakes all of India, Bendre’s character is shown to be in denial about the tragedy. Her lines may be few, but Bendre didn’t need them to make her presence felt. “Loss is a familiar emotion, but Raakh’s take [on it] was beautiful,” she adds.
Bendre is an accidental actor, one of many models who decided to give films a shot. “There was no burning ambition to be an actor,” she says. “I slowly discovered I like it. When you accept that, you look at things differently. You know you are here for the long haul. You want to enjoy the process and do it more mindfully.”
Raakh is bound to lead to more offers. “The actor in me is hungry for great and good roles,” says Bendre. For her, it’s no longer about the length of the role; it’s about the challenge: “How I can play it differently.”
