Sonali Bendre: ‘I was the comic relief in Sarfarosh, if you take me out it’s a documentary’

Sonali Bendre

Filmmaker John Matthew Matthan's 1999 film 'Sarfarosh' is one among the most memorable titles in the filmography of actress Sonali Bendre. The film also starred Aamir Khan and Naseeruddin Shah recently completed 25 years of release.

In a conversation for Mid-day's The Bombay Film Story, Sonali Bendre recalls being the comic relief in the action-thriller with her line 'Don't mind, don't mind' becoming popular. "I remember telling John, I'm your comic relief in the film."

Elaborating on her popular line in the film, Bendre said, "John was very clear. He wanted something like that. There were a couple of options. I tried them out and he said, yeah, I like this one. And we did it".

She further said, "'Sarfarosh' was not a movie that was being made at that point of time. There were not movies like those being made and if you take me out and that relationship out, it's a documentary. In a certain way, if you look at it (her character) was so important".

Further, Sonali revealed that when director John narrated the film to her, he did not reveal the whole story as it was common in those days for makers to use sequences from other films in their own films when they get stuck on ideas. "John was not telling me everything. But I am a reader. I love stories. I was more interested in the story. So I asked John, but what about this character? You're not telling me, something else has to happen here. John went all serious and said, 'why would you say that?' I said, because the way you're setting this character up, you will have to close it? That's what happens in books."

It was not some mind-blowing screenplay thing or anything of that sort. That's what stories do. You put up a character and build it up and close it. So I'm seeing this character, but it's not landing anywhere. So what is happening with this character? And he was like, why are you asking me? Then when I told him this was the thing, he said, 'Oh my God, you're too smart for this'. I said, 'okay, what is it?' He said, 'I'm not going to tell you because I don't want the hook to be stolen. And that's the plot twist in the film and I'm not going to tell."

Sonali Bendre revealed that the character she was talking about was the one played by Naseeruddin Shah in the film.