EXCLUSIVE: Sonali Bendre REACTS to Hollywood media being perceived better than Bollywood, says, “they are much more sexist than we are”

Sonali Bendre is all set to feature in Zee5’s The Broken News season 2 alongside Jaideep Ahlawat and Shriya Pilgaonkar. The diva is popularly known for her stint in films like Diljale, Zakhm, and Hum Saath Saath Hai among many others. However, her career took a backseat after she was diagnosed with metastatic cancer in 2018. She made a comeback with the OTT series The Broken News. As season 2 of the series is about to be released, Sonali shares her thoughts on females being asked sexist questions, Hollywood media, and rumours floating easily.

Sonali Bendre on rumours being spread easily

During the chat, we asked Sonali her thoughts on people being more interested in relationship rumours of the actresses and it is easier to debunk claims today than it was earlier. She stated how people were easily convinced and no matter how hard you try but they believed it. The actress shares, “There was never a denial. If that was the truth till today it remains it. You can see it in the social media comments also. ‘90s me ye tha, they have said it people have assumed and no amount of you telling it’s not the truth makes any difference. I tried to even clarify but eventually I stopped doing it as no one was interested in knowing. cannot tell you that till today to what extent they will be convinced about it.”

To this, Shriya adds, “I remember on the day of our show’s trailer launch, a guy randomly asked me ‘Shriya mam are you single?’ Its okay if people are curious and they want to know. But women are asked this question more than men.”

Sonali Bendre on Hollywood media

The Hum Saath Saath actress also shares that it’s sad how sexist questions about looks, weight and other things are often asked to women. She also believes that if people perceive Hollywood media do not do so, then its said as they are more sexist than ours. “Agar log Hollywood media ko sir par rakhte hai toh its very sad. (If people admire Hollywood media then it is sad. They are much more sexist and intrusive than our media.”

Talking about how things are sometimes perceived out of context in media, Sonali avers, “I have a dark sense of humour and it took a while for people to understand this. So even if I said something in a funny way it was taken seriously. And since things were not taken in right spirit and it just sounded bad. So I had curbed not my enthusiasm but sense of humour.”

The cast also spoke about how media tends to misquote and why is it necessary to fact-check before publishing anything. Watch the full interview here:

Also Read: Starting to ask ‘why not me?’ helped me start the healing process – Sonali Bendre on her transformative cancer journey