Sonali Kulkarni: Did regional cinema even before it became glamorous

Sonali Kulkarni has always marched to her own beat mdash juggling theatre and regional cinema when her peers were Bollywoodbound And her choices have held her in good stead When it came to her web debut the actor was certain she would take the plunge only if the content spoke to her SonyLIVrsquos Whistleblower which revolves around an admission scam delivered on that count Kulkarni discusses how her role of a news channel editor left her optimistic and the societyrsquos apathy towards the growing corruptionEdited excerpts from the interviewWhat was your first reaction to the script of WhistleblowerWhen my director Manoj Pillai gave me the narration he did not start with how important I was to the story Instead he told me the story first We are a complex society and even while leading our individual lives we somehow contribute to this society Wrong things are constantly happening every day What is our take on them As a news channel editor my character Zainab Parker has the discretion to decide how she exercises that power The character made me feel optimistic in these times of corruption She is idealistic and has the courage to stay with an issueRitwik Bhowmik and Kulkarni on setAt a time when journalism is being criticised for its supposedly agendadriven narration how did it feel to play an ideal characterWhistleblower highlights that people are wrong not the profession Just because a few people went astray and sold their ideals the entire profession is criticised My performance is a tribute to all the wonderful people I met in my life Kumar Ketkar was my first boss when I used to write as a guest editor for Indian Expressrsquo Loksatta I had some fearless bosses who never told me that my opinion has to follow a particular narrative I have been a part of this industry as a writer and actor and I am empathetic towards every one of themWhistleblower revolves around an admission scam Is it based on realityThe show is fictional but we have taken impressions from real life The series depicts reality throughout For us some subjects are pure like education and medicine We donrsquot want to think that a doctor will say lsquoGive me Rs 5000000 and I will ensure the patient gets a heart transplantrsquo In some ways the education system is corrupt I remember years ago when I was told that my daughter was speaking primarily in Hindi and is not fluent in English This when she was three A child who is learning to speak cannot decide which language she is fluent inHow does the show encourage people to take a standThe show encourages people to be aware citizens and walk that extra mile In Marathi we have a saying Shivaji janmu de punn koni doosryacha ghari We all talk about our rights complain about the things going wrong in our neighbourhood but we donrsquot do anything about it We are not willing to extend ourselves as we are comfortable in our own cocoons The show will shake us out of our comfort zoneAfter working for so many years do you feel that Bollywood hasnrsquot given you your dueI donrsquot think like that I have made my own choices I am proud that I worked in Marathi and regional cinema even before it became glamorous with the OTT boom Today we are talking about Bengali Malayalam and Telugu films We now know stars and directors from regional film industries So I am supremely proud of my choices since the beginning of my career At the same time I am also a proud homemaker My industry didnrsquot tell me to sacrifice everything and immerse myself in work to encash my youth I had wonderful teachers in Satyajit Dubey Girish Karnad and Jabbar Patel who added insight to my life I am ready to take on another 25 years in the industry