Sonakshi Sinha on how her Dahaad character is different from Dabangg’s Chulbul Pandey: We should represent real, stronger women

Sonakshi Sinha made her Bollywood debut opposite Salman Khan in Dabangg. There, while he played a cop named Chulbul Pandey, she was seen as his wife. More than a decade later, now Sonakshi plays a cop in Dahaad.

Sonakshi spoke about the journey at Dahaad trailer launch held in Mumbai. She said, “Yeah, I mean, why should boys have all the fun, right?” Laughing, she added, “It’s about time we started representing more real, stronger women on screen. There are so many stories to be told.”

The actress shared how her character Anjali is different from the Chulbul Pandey we know. “This is just one such story which came to me, which I think I got really lucky with. As an actor, very rarely you come by these roles that just hit you bang in the face and you (know you) have to do it. This was one such role and as a cop, it is very different from the Chulbul Pandey we know,” she quipped.

Elaborating, Sonakshi said, “She’s very real, raw. She knows what she’s doing and what she wants to do in order to get justice no matter what it takes. She’s that kind of a woman and it was really my honour to be able to play her on-screen.”

The actress believes that there hasn’t been much representation of women cops on screen. She wants to change the scenario with her film. Of course, many actresses have played cops in films and the most memorable remains Rani Mukerji’s Mardaani. Nonetheless, Sonakshi hoped that Anjali would go down in history and be spoken about when people look at the representation of women cops in Hindi cinema.

“There’s no one particular character that really sticks out right now at the top of my head when I’m talking to you. I hope Anjali (her Dahaad character) becomes that character and people refer to her when they talk about portrayal of women cops on screen in Indian cinema. I hope she becomes that,” the actress signed off.