Sonali Bendre says her role in Shah Rukh Khan's Duplicate was reduced to a secondary character: ‘I was supposed to have equal screen space'

Indian Express

2 days ago

When Shah Rukh Khan's Duplicate 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 film of 1998. However, Sonali recently revealed that she felt shortchanged by the way 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 and said, '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 Bendre agreed to take on the role solely because of her positive experience working with filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt on Zakhm, which 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.'
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Previously, talking to India Today, Sonali Bendre 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.'
Expressing her disappointment in the kind of shift the film took during the filming process, Sonali added, 'Every time a Duplicate song is played and people mention the film, the thing that I remember the most is the fact that how much a story can get de-railed and how much you can start with something and where it goes. And, for me, that was a huge learning. As time goes by, you start thinking whether I misinterpreted something or it was the other way around. But then, as you go forward, sometimes you do things for that paycheck, but other than that, in my second innings, I don't want to be slotted and boxed, and I want to do characters that break this stereotype.'