The dominance of the underworld in the film industry back in the ’90s is an unsaid truth that not many address. Actor Sonali Bendre, who was a heartthrob at the time, recently opened up on how she was replaced in projects due to calls from the underworld.

“There were times when I was supposed to do a role and it went to someone else, because someone called them up. Then, the director or the co-actor would call you and say, ‘I have that pressure and I can’t do anything about it’. And, I understand,” she said during a conversation on The Ranveer Show podcast.

Talking about the ’90s, she added, “Many clean sources were financing films. But, there was no proper, formal industry status. So, there was a lot of unregulated finance coming in as well, and banks will not give it to you. So, that limit was there.”

Bendre maintained how she wanted to stay away from ‘dodgy’ film producers. She elaborated, “Where I was concerned, the moment I would know it’s a bit dodgy, at that time, the excuse I would give is, ‘Oh I am shooting for a movie in the south, so I can’t do it.’”

Her then-boyfriend and now husband, filmmaker Goldie Behl, helped in the process of dodging such dodgy producers, the actor revealed. “His mother would know it, his father was in the movies, too. So, you just knew. So, that just fell into place,” she said.