'I am bratty but not spoilt' Sonal Sehgal

SIZZLER

Sonal Sehgal

'I am bratty but not spoilt'

PRIYANKA DELADIA

   The most amazing part about being famous are the tales that got them there. Sonal Sehgal's case is no different. She, like many others, got her break by a twist of fate. "I started out behind the camera, working as an assistant director to film-maker Pradeep
Sarkar. On one such shoot for a music video for Euphoria, we were unable to find one of the two models required for the project, and I was forcefully put in front of the camera."
   Not that she regrets it. What followed were a host of music videos and ad-films. Yes, music videos! "But they were unlike the item numbers that you see on TV these days. I was always typecast as the 'Punjab ki Kudi' so, luckily no skin show for me." So, would she do an item number today? Pat comes her reply, "No way. I am sure the videos are doing very well for the record companies, which is why they have flooded TV but it's not for me."
   Talking about her first role on television, she says, "I started out playing a negative role in Star Plus' Saara Aakash, and I was warned that I would be stereotyped as a vamp but my character Sanjana, was unlike the common TV vamps. She didn't wear heavy, tacky makeup or make conniving eyes at anyone. She only wore simple salwar kameezes and very little makeup."
   However, her stand on the vamps on TV today is very diplomatic, "I think if you do away with the gaudy makeup, snake bindis et al, a vamp would be more powerful than the heroines as nobody would ever suspect her."
   In her latest TV venture, Star One's Hotel Kingston, she plays the character of Shelley Sahai, who she describes as, "bratty and spoilt to the extent of being ill-mannered, yet extremely loveable."
   Is her reel life character like her in real life? "Yes, I am bratty, but not spoilt.", she adds.
   For Sonal the next transition, that is Bollywood, is up for grabs rather quickly. "I have just finished shooting for U Bomsi n Me, it's a hinglish film directed by Adman Jairaj Padmanabhan."
   "It s been a very good two years in Mumbai, good serials, great characters, good cinema... what more could I have asked for?!!" she signs off.