Vishwatma actor Sonam on comeback: ‘People who don’t know me will come to know me’

Sonam, popularly known as Oye Oye girl is set to make her acting comeback with an OTT show. She is best known for her roles in Tridev, Ajooba, and Vishwatma to name a few. In an exclusive interview with The Free Press Journal, she talks about giving up on films, the kind of work she is looking for, and more.

Excerpts: What is that one thing that pushed you to make your acting comeback? During the lockdown, I started watching a lot of shows on OTT. I realised that the content is good and palatable to my personal choices. That’s when I decided to come back.

After 2018, I started putting on weight and I had to shed around 30 kilos. I got my confidence back. I felt that I should begin where I ended abruptly.

I turned 50 last September and I am now all set to enter the OTT space. I would be a lot wiser than before. You are coming back to the industry after three decades.

How do you feel about the current scenario? I feel like a newcomer. I am happy and ambitious but scared too. I am filled with all these mixed emotions but one has to keep the positive ones in the head.

Thirty-two years have passed away but I am willing to learn. I would also learn from my mistakes. We all make mistakes.

Back then, all my co-actors and fellow artistes were good to me. Where have you been all this while? I have been all over the place. I left India in 1997 and lived out of suitcases till about 2012.

It’s been quite a journey. I don’t have any regrets. Life has been full of good, bad, positives and negatives.

I was merely 14 when I started working and got pregnant at the age of 19. How does it feels when people still call you Oye Oye girl? People who don’t know me will come to know me. It is exciting that I get to interact with the newer generation.

It is important to move ahead with the times. My last release was Ajooba, which was around 1990. Regrets are useless.

It wasn’t destined for me to do that. I just took it as an act of god. What kind of work are you looking for at the moment? I am open to things, just that the script has to be good.

I want to play relatable roles. I want to add and enhance all the women out there and tell them that life doesn’t end at 50. I feel there is a lot of emphasis on how a woman should look, it is not only heavy on your purse but heavy mentally too.

I don’t want to inspire anyone but I want to do my bit. If I can make one woman also smile, then I believe I made some difference. Elaborate further… I feel women lose their identity in our country around the age of 50.

I am not scared of my wrinkles. If tomorrow, I’ll get a role according to what I look like, I am totally fine with it. People who want to do botox are also fine.

It’s their choice. (If you have a story in and around Mumbai, you have our ears, be a citizen journalist and send us your story here . ) (To receive our E-paper on WhatsApp daily, please click here.

To receive it on Telegram, please click here . We permit sharing of the paper’s PDF on WhatsApp and other social media platforms. ).