"There are days when you feel like, ‘Oh my God, should I just not face a camera ever again’,” says Sonali Bendre, speaking to CE on the eve of Women’s Day, about the pressures of ageing in an industry that tends to prioritise beauty, glamour and youth, especially when it comes to women actors. Elaborating on the prevalence of ageism, she adds, “Even now, people will say, ‘Buddhi lag rahi hain’ (you look like an old woman) but I would say, why is ‘buddhi’ such a bad word? It means you’ve lived a life and you have an experience. I think I would like to wear my stripes, my lines, with honour, because that’s a life that I’ve lived, and it would be a little criminal to wash it all away.”
The actor, who is known for starring in ’90s hits like Hum Saath Saath Hain and Sarfarosh and who recently starred in the OTT show The Broken News, notes that OTT has played a big role in platforming more diverse stories, saying, “In mainstream cinema, where a film needs to be a commercial blockbuster and fill a certain amount of seats, there’s only certain kinds of stories that get told. But certain stories, especially for this age, are more niche and OTT has given us a place where those stories can be told.”
Addressing an audience of women of all ages at Amazon ElevateHER 2025 during a fireside chat, Bendre opened up about her struggle with cancer in 2018, and why she chose to be open about the illness and her recovery on social media. “I went to sleep and when I woke up there were thousands of messages from people in all parts of the world saying they had been through it too and I was shocked – why didn’t I know about it,” she said, adding, “It was then I realised there is this unsaid taboo around cancer. So I said, ‘Okay, I don’t know how many days I have left but I’m not going to go into self pity. As someone in the public view, what I can do is make this a talking point and start conversation around it’.” About people coming up to her about their diagnoses, she added, “Every time that I meet people who say that they caught it early, I feel that this conversation has saved so many lives that I don’t think I can achieve anything more than this.”
When the conversation took a turn towards motherhood and being a working professional through it, Bendre encouraged women to keep the curiosity, enthusiasm, and fearlessness of their younger days alive; “When we are younger, because we have our whole life ahead of us, we are okay with trying things for 2-3 years and seeing where it goes. But, when we become mothers, it changes. My fearlessness went out the window when I became a mother and I became fearful looking at the future, because suddenly, there was this whole life that depended on me,” she said.
When asked about any new projects she may be working on, Bendre was tight-lipped, but hinted that it might be an OTT series. “Amazon’s contracts are... my god! I think my children will have to handle those contracts after I am gone. I will not dare break that but I think that gives you a hint,” she said, laughing.