Sonali Bendre

Sonali Bendre (born 1 January 1975), is an Indian actress predominantly known for her work in Hindi and Telugu films. One of the leading actresses of the 1990s, Bendre started her career as a model and marked her acting debut with Aag (1994), which won her the Filmfare Award for New Face of the Year.

Following several box office failures, she had her career breakthrough with the romantic action film Diljale (1996). Bendre achieved further success by featuring as the female lead in the action comedy Duplicate (1998), the action Major Saab (1998), the drama Zakhm (1998), the action thriller Sarfarosh (1999), the romantic Tamil film Kadhalar Dhinam (1999) and the highly successful family drama Hum Saath Saath Hain (1999)

In the following decade, Bendre's performance in the romantic drama Hamara Dil Aapke Paas Hai (2000), earned her the Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress. She further expanded to South Indian films with the Kannada psychological thriller Preethse (2000) and Telugu films with the romantic drama Murari (2001), for which she received Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu nomination, the action drama Indra (2002), the romantic comedy Manmadhudu (2002) and the comedy drama Shankar Dada M.B.B.S. (2004), all of which were box office successes. Her portrayal of a queen in the Marathi film Anahat (2003), was followed by a hiatus from acting.