In the 1990s, the elegant actress Sonali Bendre dominated Telugu and Bollywood cinema. She has played a variety of roles throughout the course of her decades-long career, costarring with Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and others. One of her most notable performances with SRK was in Duplicate, in which Shah Rukh played two parts—one good and one evil—and Sonali costarred with Juhi Chawla as the wicked “Manu’s” lover. But even though the movie was a hit, Sonali wasn’t happy with her part.

Sonali Bendre talked candidly about her experience working on the 1998 movie Duplicate, which costarred Shah Rukh Khan and Juhi Chawla, in a recent interview with Bollywood Bubble. Sonali, who portrays “Lily,” the romantic interest of SRK’s villainous character “Manu,” in the movie, remembers how her role got flat as the plot developed.

She stated, “It was a film that a lot of people talk about. But this is one of those films that really helped shape the way I wanted my character to be. The idea was to have beautiful grey shades in this character, but it kind of started becoming very one-dimensional. I think it became more of a secondary character when I got onto it.”

Sonali remembered working with Mahesh Bhatt in two very different ways. Sonali collaborated with the director on Zakhm, which costarred Ajay Devgn, Nagarjuna, and Pooja Bhatt, in the same year as Duplicate. Sonali was eager to participate in the movie even though she knew she wouldn’t be in the major position. However, her experience in Duplicate was different because, despite being one of the female protagonists, she didn’t feel noticed.

The actress said, “When I did Zakhm, I knew it wasn’t the main character. I knew Pooja (Bhatt) had that role. But it was a beautiful story with Bhatt Sahab, and I just wanted to be a part of it, so I did it. But when Duplicate was concerned, I was supposed to have had an equal amount. And at that point, it started to feel like it wasn’t the same kind of role anymore. So at that time, I did start to feel like I wasn’t getting my due. But I think eventually, it all evened out, and I did get my due.

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Sonali Bendre:

In a previous interview with India Today, Sonali said she was disappointed to have worked on Duplicate despite the movie’s huge success because of the sudden change in her character as the plot developed. The actress recounted how the plot of Duplicate veered off course, and she eventually felt more like a caricature than a genuine character.