Bollywood actor Sonali Bendre, though retired from the silver screen, is keeping herself busy raising her seven-and-a-half-year-old, while simultaneously judging reality shows like Indian Idol and India’s Got Talent. Bendre stole our hearts when she played Preeti in 1999 blockbuster Hum Saath Saath Hain and as a supporting actor in Shahrukh Khan starrer Kal Ho Na Ho in 2003.
When asked about how she does it all, Bendre says she takes inspiration from her mother. The actor calls her mom her idol for raising three daughters with very limited resources and giving them wings despite not being well-educated. She admits this kind of heroism is not that uncommon in the country.
“My mother has done a great job with her kids,” the 38-year-old actor said in an interview.
“The daily struggle of raising three daughters with a very limited income, yet seeing to it that they get a good upbringing; that person is my hero,” Bendre added.
Hailing from a middle-class family, Bendre entered filmdom through ads and later rose on the firmament with her work in Sarfarosh, Zakhm, and Duplicate.
After playing a successful innings, she tied the knot with film-maker Goldie Behl and settled down. Mother of a seven-and-a-half-year-old son, she has immense respect for women who balance their family and work.
“I had the luxury of making a choice [whether to work or not]. All women don’t have this luxury and I really don’t know how they do it [manage]. If I had to do everything on my own, I would have fallen apart,” she confessed.
“I have an immense amount of respect for women who leave their kids and go to work, because they have to. They don’t have a choice. I couldn’t have done that,” she added.
After becoming a mother, Bendre cut down on her work as her priority was to be a hands-on mother. On and off, she appears on the small screen as a judge of reality shows.
“From what I know and what I have read, the first seven years of a child’s life are very important; be it for their emotional quotient, body type, IQ or habits,” she said. “So for me, it was very clear that the first seven years of my son’s life should be good.”
Bendre is all set to come back on the silver screen this fall with Once Upon A Time in Mumbaai Again with Akshay Kumar, Imran Khan and Sonakshi Sinha.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2013.
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