When Sonali Bendre was ready to pack her bags and leave Bollywood
Sonali Bendre says she had decided to pack her bags and leave the film industry if she was unable to do a good performance in the song 'Humma Humma' from Mani Ratnam's 1995 movie 'Bombay'. Bendre, who was barely five films old in the industry, said she was often «slammed» by choreographers for her moves until she got a breakthrough for her stint as the female dancer in the superhit track 'Humma Humma' alongside Prabhu Deva's brother Raju Sundaram. According to the actress, it was a common perception at the time that one couldn't become a heroine if they didn't know how to dance. The 49-year-old said she wanted to give dancing a shot as the song was choreographed by the legendary Prabhu Deva.
«I'm not a trained dancer. When I got into movies, I really got slammed by dance directors for my dancing. 'Badi heroine banne chali hai, dancing nahi aata'. So, if you couldn't dance, you couldn't be a heroine. I was going through all of that so whatever time I would get before and after the shoot, I started to train in 'Bollywood dancing', as it's called.
«This was more like, 'Let's do this'. This is with Prabhu Deva because if I can do it, I have a right to be here and if I can't do it, pack your bags and leave. At that point of time, it was like, '(At least) My team would earn their per-day (money)'» Bendre told PTI in an interview here.
The actress, who later went on to feature in '90s hits such as «Diljale», «Major Saab», «Sarfarosh», «Zakhm» and «Hum Saath Saath Hain», said Prabhu Deva's father and choreographer master
