Sonakshi Sinha: I walked away as a more resilient actor

Next time you visit Sanjay Leela Bhansalirsquos office have tea not coffeerdquo says actor Sonakshi Sinha while narrating a fun anecdote behind her casting in the directorrsquos upcoming web show Heeramandi The Diamond BazaarBhansali produced Sinharsquos Rowdy Rathore 2012 and they have been trying to collaborate for a long time but nothing materialised ldquoHe has been encouraging We were always in touch Every time I went to his office we would chat over coffee I was like sir lsquoEvery time I come to your office we have coffee and then I leave Irsquom not having coffee with you I will have tearsquo I had tea and we had the same sort of conversation and I went home And then I am in Heeramandi So tea is the answer guys not coffeerdquo the actor said on day two of FICCI Frames 2024Sinha who plays Fareedan in the multistarrer drama set during Indiarsquos freedom struggle when courtesans ruled the cultural landscape said she loves the way Bhansali known for films such as Devdas 2002 Bajirao Mastani 2015 and Gangubai Kathiawadi 2022 presents women on screen film after film ldquoIrsquom glad our collaboration happened with Heeramandi The way he portrays his women on screen nobody is able to do that He has got a different vision for it in spite of it being a magnum opus He takes good care of how his female characters are portrayed on screen and thatrsquos something I appreciate about himrdquo she saidThe eightpart series also features Manisha Koirala Aditi Rao Hydari Richa Chadha Sharmin Segal and Sanjeeda Shaikh According to Sinha the director has given equal importance to all the female characters in the series ldquoIn Heeramandi we have six different women with six stories to tell and each one has been given importance To be part of something like this is tremendousrdquoHaving worked with the National Awardwinning director Sinha said she has blossomed into a ldquopatient and strongerrdquo actor ldquoI walked away as a more resilient actor after Heeramandi Thatrsquos a good thing and good things take time and greater things take more time To be a part of something like this does require a lot of patience I know I do my job well Here you have to mould yourself along with what has been created in front of you the process of completely surrendering and if you are not able to do that then you cannot be part of something like thisrdquoAt this stage of her career the Dahaad 2023 star said she wants to be challenged as an actor She also expressed gratitude to Bhansali for having the confidence in her ldquoEvery actor craves to be challenged Irsquove grown and learnt through experiences Irsquove started from scratch I had no experience of being on a film set and I never visited my dadrsquos sets when I was a child I had no training in acting or dancing I was not groomed for it I was thrown into the deep end of the pool and told to swim Thatrsquos how I learnt things Every experience for me was something that I cherish because I learnt a lot from every person I worked with It has got me to the point where Sanjay Leela Bhansali has confidence in me to offer me a complex character like Fareedanrdquo the actor saidThe actor who has appeared in masala entertainers like Dabangg 20102019 Rowdy Rathore 2012 and R Rajkumar 2013 said she has no qualms about doing commercial films at the onset of her career She added that the experience of working on such movies gave her the confidence to headline womenoriented films ldquoIrsquove been working for 14 years and Irsquove done all sorts of roles I started off with commercial masala films where it was always about the hero which Irsquom not complaining about as it gave me an audience and wide reach It gave me the confidence to shoulder films on my own Thatrsquos when I started playing strong women characters which were different from the others like in Akira 2016 or Noor 2017 or Khandaani Shafakhana 2019 or Dahaad I consciously chose roles that Irsquove not played before which pushed and challenged me as an actorrdquo she said