Sonali's new act

Sonali Bendre teams up with Lucknow director for her stage debut, Aapki Sonia
Sonali Bendre is all set to make her theatre debut with the unprecedented play Tumhari Amrita which has been running strong till date for the past 13 years. Now a sort of sequel which is new to Indian theatre is titled Aapki Sonia starring Farooque Shaikh and Sonali Bendre.The play will premiere this March or early April this year. The play is written by Javed Siddiqui, directed by Salim Arif and produced by Lubna Salim while Sharmishta Roy will make the sets.
"I have never planned my career everything has been so instinctive, I never even planned to be an actress. So, when Lubna who is a family friend came to me with this concept, I loved the script which is so beautifully written by Javed saab. It is a challenge and great legacy to live up to and there will be too many expectations," says Sonali Bendre. She even refused many Bollywood offers to jump into this new venture. "People who have not seen the previous play or perhaps people who have already seen the play will too enjoy it," adds Sonali who says she is ready for such interesting projects and will not stop her Bollywoood work but would be rather choosy about them.
"It''s a loud call from the rooftop perhaps that I''m looking at new challenges. It took almost four years to plan this new experience. I felt Bollywood was not too stimulating and I felt that I was stagnated. I have a bad habit that I don''t enjoy if I''m not worried. So, here I have butterflies in my stomach for doing this play and feeling I''m alive once again," avers Sonali who has not even seen the earlier play.
"I have tried to differ the character of Sonia completely different from that of Amrita which will come as a surprise for all," says well-known writer Javed Siddiqi who also wrote the earlier play. The theme of this new play is "hate mail after love letters."
"When we started this play we had never expected it would go for such a long time. Somewhere it strikes with every member in the audience and it is the magic of Javed''s pen which works multifold. We will see a completely different aspect of Sonali which will shock the daylights of number of audiences across the globe," says Farooque Shaikh.