Sonali Bendre, currently starring in Broken News, Season 2, shared her experience of dealing with fake news in the ’90s. The actress also revealed the sense of powerlessness she felt when unable to speak out. Read her exclusive interview below with India.com!
At the age of 19, Sonali Bendre made her entry into Bollywood with Aag and quickly rose to become a renowned figure. In 1994, she made her screen debut alongside Govinda and went on to receive immense fame for her roles in the films like Sarfarosh, Hum Saath-Saath Hain, Dulpicate etc. She is one of the few actresses who have worked with significant Khans of B-Town (Aamir, Salman, Shahrukh, and Saif).
In 2022, the actress entered the OTT world with drama series The Broken News on ZEE5 Global. The season 2 has already released and is doing great around the blocks. Well, playing the character of journalist, Sonali is addressing the role of fake news and biased media in today’s world. Well, not just this, but she also spoke about being subjected to fake news in real. In an exclusive interview with India.com, the actress revealed how during the ’90s the media channels use to sensationalise fake news, gossips and recounted her own experiences of being a victim of such practices.
Sonali Bendre on Media’s Made-Up Rumours About Her in The ’90s
Sonali Bendre on numerous gossips circulated by media and highlighted the lack of fact-checking in ’90s. She said, “A lot of news use to written about me as an actor and the gossip, the salacious gossip was very much the fake news. It took years, 5 or 10 years sometime that it became obvious that it is fake news. People lost interest in it, and nobody wanted to know that it was a fake news or not and things just moved on. But now you look back and the various headlines one was subjected, to there were so many headlines that it was not true and there was no checking on that.”
Sonali Bendre on How She Was Unable To Raise Her Voice
The Hum Saath-Saath Hain actress also revealed that how social media gave her the voice and the liberty to open up about inaccurate news. She said, “Social media has given me a voice where I can come on my account and say that this is fake and this is not true, whatever. At least, it gives me a voice. That time I had no option but to I can just say to 3 people or 4 people. I was always dependent on someone writing about it to get my voice heard.”
Sonali Bendre’s Definition of Journalism
Accoring to Sonali, “Journalsim should stand on facts. If someone is talking about something that is not fact, then that is fiction and storytelling. There can be opinion pieces if you want to form opinions, but you should be open about it in your opinion piece, and it should be upon the reader, viewer or listener to agree to it. And hiding your opinions by saying that these are facts or news is something I have problem with.”
About The Broken News
Directed by Vinay Waikul, Apart from Sonali, the newsroom drama also features Jaideep Ahlawat, Shriya Pilgaonkar, Jay Upadhyay, Indraneil Sengupta, Taaruk Raina, Aakash Khurana and Kiran Kumar.
Follow this space to watch full video interview with Sonali Bendre!
