Bollywood actress Sonal Chauhan is soaking in the response to Mirzapur: The Movie, but the actress admits that the scale of its box office opening caught her and the team by surprise. While she was confident about the project when she signed it, she did not expect the film to connect with the masses to this extent.
Speaking exclusively to India TV, Sonal said the team was shocked when the day 1 numbers came in. For her, the success has been particularly special because she had faith in the film from the beginning, but the response went beyond what she had imagined.
The actress added that the box office success feels even sweeter because of the opportunity given to her by the makers. She said she remains grateful that Excel Entertainment approached her for the project.
Why Sonal Chauhan said yes to Mirzapur: The Movie
Sonal revealed that she had always wanted to work with Excel Entertainment because she likes the kind of films and projects the production house has been associated with. So, when the call for Mirzapur: The Movie finally came, she was excited.
She did not take much time to say yes either. Sonal admitted that she initially wondered whether a character like Mumtaz Bibi would have enough space in a film as aggressive and action-driven as Mirzapur. However, the script changed that equation.
Once she heard the story and understood her character, the actress immediately agreed to be part of the film.
Sonal Chauhan on becoming Mumtaz Bibi
Sonal also spoke about how deeply she immersed herself in Mumtaz while shooting for the film in Rajasthan. She spent around one-and-a-half months there and said she deliberately kept her own personality away from the sets. The actress explained that if she had brought Sonal from Mumbai with her, she would not have been able to get under Mumtaz’s skin in the same way. She instead stayed with the character throughout the shoot and gradually found herself speaking like her.
That process, she believes, also helped her understand Mumtaz’s silences.
Sonal said that when Mumtaz speaks, the audience naturally waits and listens. But even when she says nothing, there is still a lot to read into her silence. For the actress, that became an important part of making the character effective on screen.
Sonal Chauhan on bringing a new flavour to a familiar world
Sonal also credited her co-stars Ravi Kishan and Mohit for making the experience enjoyable. The three actors entered a franchise where several characters already had an established identity and a strong fan following. She said that characters such as Munna Bhaiya, Guddu Pandit and Kaleen Bhaiya were already familiar to the audience, while Mumtaz, along with Ravi Kishan and Mohit Malik’s characters, brought something new to the film.
According to Sonal, that created a different challenge for the actors. They had to hold their own alongside established characters while also making their respective opportunities count. She credited the writers for giving every character enough room to breathe and shine. For Sonal, that balance helped the newer characters become an important part of the film without taking away from the world audiences already knew.
With Mirzapur: The Movie now receiving a strong theatrical response, Sonal’s Mumtaz Bibi has also emerged as one of the newer additions to the franchise. For the actress, the experience has been a combination of a role she deeply connected with and a project whose scale of success she did not see coming.
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