{"id":483347,"date":"2026-06-18T08:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T08:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483347\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T08:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T08:57:08","slug":"sonali-bendre-chooses-only-positive-roles-after-cancer-battle-didnt-want-work-that-triggered-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483347\/","title":{"rendered":"Sonali Bendre chooses only positive roles after cancer battle: ‘Didn’t want work that triggered me’ |"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SonaliSonali Bendre, diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2018, made her comeback in 2022 with ‘The Broken News’. After recovery, she chose lighter roles but couldn’t resist ‘Raakh’ due to its compelling script. Now streaming on Prime Video, the show also stars Ali Fazal and Aamir Bashir. Sonali Bendre<\/a> was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in 2018. After fighting the illness and recovering, she made her comeback in 2022 with a web series called \u2018The Broken News\u2019. In the same year, she also appeared as a judge on the dance reality show \u2018DID Li’l Masters\u2019. After her recovery, Sonali consciously decided to avoid dark and heavy roles, as she felt they could drain her emotionally. She was very clear about the kind of work she wanted to take up.<\/p>\n

Sonali Bendre on choosing lighter roles for her emotional well-being<\/p>\n

In a conversation with News18, she opened up about her mindset, saying, \u201cI really wanted to play hopeful and lighter roles that would\u2019ve kept me happy through it all, and I could\u2019ve come back pepped up. I wanted work like that, especially since I had been through a really dark period. I was coming out of it and didn\u2019t want to do work that would trigger me and make me spiral. It was such a fun film (\u2018Love Ke Liye Kuch Bhi Karega\u2019). The amount of fun Saif (Ali Khan) and I had shooting for it! The energy was great on set. There are very few good, fun and light-hearted stories like that which were being written”.<\/p>\n

How ‘Raakh’ changed Sonali Bendre’s mind<\/p>\n

Interestingly, her latest show \u2018Raakh\u2019, which is a dark and intense watch, was never on her list. But the project came to her, and she couldn’t say no. “Raakh wasn’t something I was looking for. I wasn’t open to it, but it came my way. It just goes to show how compelling the content was. The script was so amazing, and so was my character and the entire team involved. There was no way I could’ve said no to it. I hope I keep getting stuff like Raakh \u2013 stuff I can\u2019t say no to. I do hope more creators and directors see me as someone that people usually don\u2019t see me as. I really didn\u2019t think people were seeing me for roles like this one. Every time I felt I wasn\u2019t being seen that way, somebody was. It took some time, but I\u2019m glad it came to me,” Sonali shared.<\/p>\n

Sonali Bendre is grateful for where she stands today<\/p>\n

Although Sonali wishes she had more screen time in the show, she believes it has opened doors for future opportunities. “It’s not the length I like. I would’ve loved to see more of me in the series. But I’m glad I took the chance because it has been an exceptionally amazing experience.” She also acknowledges that many filmmakers today are still figuring out how to cast her, but instead of dwelling on that, she looks at the positive side. “The age I’m at, if I were this age in the nineties when I had started out, I wouldn’t have gotten the roles I’m getting today. That’s why I say I’m in a good space. But can it get better? Of course, it can, and I hope it does. But there are so many ways of storytelling and so many stories being told now. At that time, what was the scope of telling these stories? I’m grateful for what’s there,” she remarked.<\/p>\n

Sonali Bendre\u2019s work front<\/p>\n

Sonali Bendre is currently seen in ‘Raakh’ along with Ali Fazal<\/a> and Aamir Bashir<\/a>. The show is full of mystery and thrills that keep the audience hooked till the end. It is directed by Prosit Roy and written and co-directed by Anusha Nandakumar and Sandeep Saket. The series started streaming on Prime Video in India on June 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sonali Bendre, diagnosed with stage four cancer in 2018, made her comeback in 2022 with ‘The Broken News’.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483348,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[31299,242749,169338,156,409,111,139,69,242748,87183],"class_list":["post-483347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-aamir","tag-aamir-bashir","tag-ali-fazal","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-prosit-roy","tag-sonali-bendre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}