New bride Sonakshi on her seven-year relationship with Zaheer, and how their joy strengthened them to ignore negative chatter around their shaadi
Sonakshi Sinha
In the past 14 months, we’ve seen Sonakshi Sinha play five dramatically different women. While her maiden web series Dahaad (2023) saw her as a police officer from an oppressed caste, Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar featured her as a ruthless courtesan and her revenge-seeking daughter. Over the weekend, we met two more versions of Sinha, as she played a double role again in Kakuda. Is the variety of roles by design? Absolutely, the actor assures us. “It’s intentional. As an actor, I want to keep playing different roles. That’s what has kept me enthusiastic about my work after 14 years in the industry,” she says.
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The change is all the more marked as Sinha, in the early years of her career, was often questioned about being part of hero-centric stories. But now, she stands proud as she fronts important stories. “My hunger as a performer started increasing the day I switched gears. That hunger kept getting bigger and bigger; that’s why I [kept] choosing roles that were central to the plot and portrayed women in a strong light.”
Kakuda fits right in that plan. The ZEE5 horror comedy, also starring Riteish Deshmukh and Saqib Saleem, has been helmed by Munjya maker Aditya Sarpotdar. As much as Sinha loved the script, she had to take a beat before saying yes. Reason? “I don’t even watch horror films because I am a scaredy cat,” she laughs. “But when I read this script, I could immediately see myself playing both Indira and Gomti. Aditya is a fantastic director. I loved his Zombivli [2022].”
If her professional life is flourishing, things are even more blissful on the personal front. Last month, she got married to long-time partner Zaheer Iqbal. The two had kept their relationship under wraps for seven years. Was it difficult to keep it away from the media glare? “It wasn’t. I am a low-key, private person. So, it happened organically. Also, I believe in keeping things that are close to my heart, close to my heart.”
In the days leading up to their wedding, the couple maintained their private demeanour, as rumours abounded about the Sinha family’s apparent displeasure over her shaadi. “It was a happy time for me and for us. So, we were concentrating on that. When you are happy within yourself and with each other, and you are each other’s biggest strength, it gets very easy to drown out the noise. So, that’s what we did. We were focusing on us and our loved ones enjoying the big day.”
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