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Sonali Kulkarni goes global
Sonali will soon enter the global arena via Italy, says Saibal Chatterjee.
Two weeks after the upcoming release of her newest Hindi film, Dansh, actress Sonali Kulkarni will go global with an Italian love story co-starring the legendary Egyptian Hollywood star Omar Sharif.
The film, Fuoco Su Di Me (Fire at My Heart), directed by Lamberto Lambertini, will be accorded a red carpet premiere at the upcoming 62nd Venice International Film Festival. "These are really exciting times for me," says Kulkarni, who will travel to Venice for the screening of the film there on September 9. The ten-day Venice International Film Festival opens on August 31.
"In Fire at My Heart, I play the role of an 18th century Italian girl who lives on a desolate island. Her world changes forever when she falls in love with a Prince," reveals the Pune-bred actress.
Kulkarni's reputation as an actress hinges on a slew of quality Hindi and Marathi films helmed by the likes of Girish Karnad, Jabbar Patel, Amol Palekar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Farhan Akhtar.
After played megastar Hrithik Roshan's mother in her first major mainstream Bollywood film, Mission Kashmir, she went on to act opposite the likes of Fardeen Khan (Pyaar Tune Kya Kiya and Kitne Paas Kitne Door) and Saif Ali Khan (Dil Chahta Hai). More recently, she was seen in a cameo in Gurinder Chadha's Bride &Prejudice.
Her association with Lambertini and his land goes back to the mid 1990s, when the Italian director was in India to make a film titled Vrindavan Film Studios. The actress had played the cameo of a Bengali girl in the film. "While working on Vrindavan Film Studios, Lamberto had promised to give me the lead role in his next film," she says. "He kept his word but not before putting me through a screen test to make sure that I was right for the role."
Dansh, directed by debutante Kanika Verma, also has an international linkage. The film is based on Argentina-born Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman's celebrated play, Death and the Maiden.
The drama has been reworked into a fictionalized story of three characters involved in a cat-and-mouse battle of psychological attrition on the eve of the signing of the 1986 Mizo peace accord between MNF supreme Laldenga and the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
"The character of Maria, an MNF activist, is very complex and multi-layered. There is a thin line that separates the woman in her from the politically committed entity that she is," explains Kulkarni. "Kanika took great care to make Maria absolutely believable."
Dansh, scheduled to open in India on August 26, has already been invited to two major film festivals - the Palm Springs International Film Festival, scheduled for January next, and the Bangkok International Film Festival, to be held a month thereafter.
Kulkarni made her debut in the early 1990s in Girish Karnad's Cheluvi, an evocative Hindi-language adaptation of a Kannada folk tale about a village girl who turns into a tree. She has seen her stocks rise slowly but steadily over the years. "I have done 30 films and over ten plays. I have worked with some of India's finest directors and actors. I have reason to be satisfied with the progress I have made," she says.
Kulkarni has one regret though. "I could perhaps do with a little more mass popularity," she admits. "But I am happy the way I am. I am enjoying acting more than ever before. I am more at ease with myself. In the early years, I was too obsessed with the idea of making an impression. Now I let myself flow with a role," she adds.
Kulkarni is particularly proud of the fact that she is a self-made professional. "I have got here entirely on my own steam. I started from scratch. Today, I am in a position to experiment with roles and pick and choose exactly the kind of films that I believe in," she says.
What, then, are the films that she currently has in her kitty? Already in the cans is actor-director Makarand Deshpande's Hanan, which has Kulkarni playing a simple woman who is possessed by a goddess. Her co-star in the film is Manoj Bajpai.
Yet another fine Mumbai screen actor, Nana Patekar, is her co-star in Milan Luthria's Taxi No 9211, which also features John Abraham and Sameera Reddy in stellar roles. Another film that Kulkarni has on the floors is a Gujarati comedy produced by parody singer Devang Patel to launch the acting career of his brother.
"I really have a nice feeling about the way my career is shaping up," says the perky lady. "I will rock soon," she signs off with a flourish.
