'No big actors for women-oriented films'

new delhi: don't mind, but it doesn't always help an actress to do a convincing job of playing a bimbette. ask sonali bendre. such was the success of her portrayal in sarfarosh, that people still address her with her favourite line in the aamir khan starrer, "don't mind..." even when she's meeting them to talk about madhuri, the headstrong girl she plays in tera mera saath rahen, her latest with costar ajay devgan.don't mind, but being in the shadow of a strong character doesn't help either. sonali must have realised this after zakhm. all people remember here is a simmering devgan in a role that bagged him the national award. for that matter, how many remember the other hits with sonali in 'lead roles' that demanded little beyond dressing and dancing well? despite this, sonali can't complain. either about the adulation, money, craze or the opportunity to anchor kya masti kya dhum. still, there's something wanting in her life: that "really challenging role." "i've had a taste of success, and all that it entails," says the actress. "adulation doesn't matter to me so much now. i'm beginning to understand my craft - what i want now is to grow. not in terms of doing more films but in terms of learning more from roles." she can't cite an instance but believes her instinct will tell her "this is it." nandita das has been lucky. fire, earth 1947, deveeri, hari bhari, aks: she's had a string of films where she was a flesh and blood character. in bawandar, now awaiting release, she's a woman who is gang-raped but still has the strength to go through the humiliation of a rape trial. either nandita got under the skin of bhanwari devi - the real life prototype for the reel life - or the role got a complete hold of her. in london, san jose, singapore festivals - wherever the film has been shown, it has won accolades. nandita is not just lucky, she's courageous too. she went on pressing for a role that would be out of the routine. that has meant, to a large extent, staying out of hindi mainstream cinema. but that loss has been more than compensated by the range of offers she's got: kannagi in malayalam with the much-feted jayaraj, chokher bali in bengali with rituparno ghosh, mani ratnam's next in tamil, pitah with mahesh manjrekar, and a mrinal sen film too. apparent contrasts sonali bendre and nandita das have one meeting ground. they both know they'll never turn producers. not even when that's the way every aamir, shah rukh and sunny have gone, to ensure they get 'that challenging role.' "to be a producer or a director, one should be able to write, to visualise, to create," sonali says. she also knows that "i'm not ready for it." partly because she's enjoying acting so much, she doesn't want "to jump into other roles." partly because producers "require resources, time, energy... aamir can do it, not me." she's frank.