Sonali Kulkarni who played the city-bred girl in Farhan Akhtar and Riteish Sidhwani’s Dil Chahta Hai, even today feels that the film was a big turning point in her career. She says so, for many reasons. Sonali who was getting a foothold in the Bollywood industry when Dil Chahta Hai came her way, had felt that there was no discipline in which Bollywood functioned, and it was the first experience on the movie where she felt everything fell in place.
In a talk with News18, Sonali went on to quote and we take the quote from that report, “This movie means the world to me because it was a turning point in my career. I am so glad and grateful that Zoya Akhtar saw my photos, took my audition and Farhan (Akhtar) and Ritesh (Sidhwani) selected me as Pooja. It was certainly a life-changer. To this day, I feel it has been a landmark film in my career and I am extremely proud to have been part of it. I never imagined the kind of success it has achieved. I was happy to be part of this fabulous gang. The kind of songs and scenes I got, I was just really excited to do them. One of my best birthday celebrations was on Dil Chahta Hai set. The unit showered me with lots of greetings and love.”
She emphasises, “I have always shown a lot of trust in debutantes. The kind of enthusiasm and raw energy they bring to the project, that really matters. I have never shied away from working with first-timers. Working with Farhan was such a joy because he has a very good sense of humour. His wit is out of the box. He is extremely spontaneous. I felt I never had a gang in Mumbai and this film taught me that life can be beautiful with friends like these around.”
Aww!! Truly Dil Chahta Hai was huge in terms of filmmaking and the cult film actually made inroads into working on more of the complex love tales.
Sonali, you are bang on in what you are saying!