Sonali Bendre

Biography

Sonali Bendre (born 1 January 1975) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Hindi and Telugu along with a few Tamil films. She did modeling assignments prior to making her acting debut with Aag (1994), which won her the Filmfare Award for New Face of the Year and the Screen Award for Best Female Debut.

Bendre is the recipient of several accolades, including two Filmfare Awards and three Screen Awards. Bendre's career had a turning point with the action film Diljale (1996), a box office hit.

She went on to establish herself as a leading actress with commercially successful films such as - the action films Duplicate (1998) and Major Saab (1998), the drama Zakhm (1998), the action thriller Sarfarosh (1999), and the family drama Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999).

Her performance in Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai (2000), won her the Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress.

Bendre has also worked in the Tamil film Kadhalar Dhinam (1999) and the Telugu film Murari (2001).

She earned a Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu nomination for the latter. Her successful Telugu films include Indra, Khadgam, Manmadhudu (all 2002), and Shankar Dada MBBS (2004). Bendre then starred in the Marathi film Anahat (2003).

This was followed by a hiatus from acting. She has since appeared as a judge on various reality shows and starred in the television series Ajeeb Daastaan Hai Ye (2014) and The Broken News (2022).

Bendre first met filmmaker Goldie Behl, son of director Ramesh Behl on the sets of her film Naaraaz. Bendre married Behl on 12 November 2002 in Mumbai. They have one child, a son born in 2005.

On 4 July 2018, Bendre announced that she had been diagnosed with metastatic cancer and was undergoing treatment in a New York City hospital. Despite having stage 4 cancer, the actress became cancer-free in 2021.