When Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Duplicate’ was released, it made a lot of noise for the actor’s dual role. Juhi Chawla and Sonali Bendre were cast as the female leads. The film earned double its budget of Rs 10 crore and became one of the highest-grossing films of 1998. However, Sonali recently revealed that she felt shortchanged in her role turned out in ‘Duplicate’, saying it ‘became more of a secondary character’.
In an interview with ‘Bollywood Bubble’, Sonali expressed her frustration with the role: “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 agreed to take on the role solely because of her positive experience working with filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt on ‘Zakhm’, which was released the same year. Although her role in ‘Zakhm’ was also brief, she was aware of it from the outset, unlike in ‘Duplicate’.
She 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.”
Previously, talking to a top news agency, Sonali shared how her role in ‘Duplicate’ started to feel like a caricature to her. She shared, “There was a film I was doing at that time called ‘Duplicate’ where I was approached to play a grey character in some way. It was very exciting and challenging for me to portray that character. We started preparing for the role in that way and also started shooting it accordingly, but slowly, as things moved, I felt I became a caricature and not really the grey character I was supposed to play.”