Madhureeta Mukherjee (BOMBAY TIMES; April 29, 2020)

It was in 2010 that Sonakshi Sinha was first seen on the silver screen as Salman Khan’s pretty lady love, Rajjo, in Dabangg. So, this year, she has reason to celebrate her decade-long run in Bollywood, but with people around the world battling the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, the actress says that she will pretend that her 10th year will be 2021, and not 2020. In a chat with BT, she said, “2020 was supposed to be my 10th year in this industry, but I am going to discount it because of the current situation. I am going to pretend that next year is going to be my 10th year in films.”

In the past decade, she has been seen in over 25 films, and a big portion of those have been large-scale commercial movies. Sonakshi has worn the label of being a commercial Bollywood actress for the longest time, and she takes pride in that. She says, “I have worked at breakneck speed throughout the years. I have spent my 20s mostly working. I am loving the space that I am in right now, professionally. I wouldn’t change a thing about the last 10 years of my career. I am here today because of the kind of work that I have done. I am proud to be a commercial film actress. Everybody wants to be a commercial actress, and everyone wants their movies to earn money at the box office, otherwise, why are you doing it? This has happened to me right from my first film (Dabangg) where I was established as a quintessential commercial Hindi film heroine. It started from there and it has continued. I have enjoyed my run and I am still running.”