Sonalee Kulkarni reveals how a Hindi producer was ‘surprised’ that she could speak in English

‘Chaukat ubhe rahun nachu shakat nahi,’ was one of the first things actor Sonalee Kulkarni was told by her family when she talked about her aspirations to be an actor.

“The paternal side of my family was against me getting into films. We come from a Brahmin family, and it was not common for women to work in films. My mom, being the sardarni, supported me. We had to fight that initial battle,” recalls the Vicky Velingkar (2019) actor.

Kulkarni’s tryst with discrimination didn’t just end there. She recalls getting a “surprising reaction” from a leading producer when she auditioned for a big Hindi musical show. “I gave my audition and was just talking to the producer. She was pretty surprised that I could speak English and converse with her in an urban way. She said ‘I thought you were a vernacular, Marathi speaking girl’. Eventually, I took it as a compliment. I guess people had this notion that Marathi-speaking actors couldn’t be urban or glamourous for that matter. I feel that’s changing now,” Kulkarni reminisces.

Today, Kulkarni is the busiest actor in the Marathi circuit. She is currently prepping for Akshay Bardapurkar’s bilingual venture Chhatrapati Tararani which she tags to be “the biggest film” of her career. However, she still remembers her first acting gig when she played Sonia Gandhi in a play during her school functions.

“I miss my school days,” says Kulkarni, “Army school has different vibes and Pune has a lot of army schools. I used to participate in all our cultural events.” Kulkarni was raised in the cultural capital. “I’m very critical like Punekars. I criticize a lot, especially my work. Punekars are meant to first dislike something and then like it,” adds Kulkarni. She mentions that her husband “hates” this “typical Punekar” quality of hers.

Apart from that Kulkarni’s husband (a chartered accountant) Kunal Benodekar is “appreciative and supportive” of her. “When I go back to him, the world is different,” Kulkarni gushes, adding that Benodekar had no idea of her background when they first met. Interestingly it was Benodekar being Dubai-based that saved his life. “If he was from Pune and he didn’t know me, I would have killed him,” Kulkarni quips.