Interview| Sonali Kulkarni: 'We are global stars. Talent matters, not language'

Sonali Kulkarni has dabbled with films, TV shows, OTT series and has now ventured into something new – voice acting for an audio series titled His Majesty's Tiger Season 1 by Audible. It’s a Hindi language audio series in which Sonali plays Rani Sukanya, who is tasked with something important. How she overcomes personal struggles to help solve a mystery, Sonali effortlessly transitions into Rani in the audio series. 

Discussing her evolution as an actor, following her Guru’s advice of ‘finding own voice’ and why she thinks its important for cinema to have new filmmakers who challenge the norm, Sonali Kulkarni opens up in an exclusive chat. 

A: From a time when we only had Doordarshan and Akashwani to now getting spoilt for choices, we have come a long way. Audio has picked up as a great medium, with the viewing time getting shorter by the day. I feel people binge-watch less these days. That’s where podcasts come in. I am glad that Audible approached me for Rani Sukanya’s role. 

A: You know Zeba, I still remember my theatre workshop with Pandit Satyadev Dubeji, who was my mentor, guru, friend, philosopher, guide. We lost him 10 years ago. But when I was in the 11th standard, I asked him something and he said that I should speak in my own voice. I kept portraying a sweeter self, but he was never convinced. When he kept telling us to speak in our own voice, out of my frustration, I asked him one day what it meant. He said, "find your own voice."

I took a big learning from that. I realised that if I imitate someone, I will lose myself in the crowd. So when Audible asked me to play Rani Sukanya, I knew that they had something in mind because this casting was very interesting for me. People have seen my plays, they have seen my web series and films in a variety of languages but to come in an audio series was definitely unique.

A: Having one formula would serve a lot of purpose and would solve all the problems because we put in a lot when we are making a film. It is time, it is talent, and apart from everything, filmmaking is a business of emotions. So if we knew the formula, success would have come easily, but then why is it, even though everyone knows the formula in an exam, not everyone makes it to the topper’s list? Every filmmaker is trying to explore something new, and that’s important because how else will we have variety?

A: Thanks to lockdown, everyone explored a variety of content in different languages. I thankfully have a wide variety of experience because I started with a Hindi film, Cheluvi, then did one in Tamil called Me Madam. Then I worked in Marathi which is my mother tongue. I worked in Gujarati, Telugu, Italian, English, and many other languages.

I am so happy that people can distinguish between South Indian films now. There is nothing like South, there are Malayalam, Tamil or Telugu films. They are all very distinctive. 

I feel we are all global stars today. Today, talent matters and not the language.