• Home
  • Mail
  • Search
  • News
  • Cricket
  • Movies
  • Lifestyle
  • Women
  • Mobile
  • Answers
  • Groups
  • More
INDIA
  • Meet the MAKERS
    • BusinessMAKERS
    • ChangeMAKERS
    • TroubleMAKERS
    • RecordMAKERS
    • NewsMAKERS
  • Spotlight
  • In the News
  • Insights
  • Real Voices
  • Events
  • More
    • In the News
    • Insights
    • Real Voices
    • Events

Switching on the Sunshine: How Sonali Bendre Battled Cancer with a Smile

Tenzin Norzom
MAKERS India2 February 2021
Actor Sonali Bendre shows how not to let Cancer dim the sunshine in our lives and tackle it head on.
Actor Sonali Bendre shows how not to let Cancer dim the sunshine in our lives and tackle it head-on.

Model-turned-actor Sonali Bendre had an elaborate welcome in the Hindi film industry when she was 19. Playing the female lead in Aag (1994), she had the promise of being the best newcomer, and she soon delivered blockbuster films like Sarfarosh and Hum Saath Saath Hain (both in 1999).

Also, experimenting with the art of storytelling across mediums, she went on to act in regional language cinemas – in Tamil, Kannada, and Marathi- as well.

Sonali has stated that what keeps her going is the fact that acting ‘allows her to play different characters without having to bear the consequences.’

Sonali married filmmaker Goldie Behl in 2002, and the couple had a son in 2005.

Life was panning out well for Sonali when, in 2018, she was diagnosed with cancer, with just 30 percent chances of survival.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sonali Bendre (@iamsonalibendre) on Feb 3, 2020 at 10:17pm PST

Dealing with the Curveball

Sonali and her husband had come to check on her health in New York city when she was diagnosed. “We didn’t have an apartment, we hadn’t booked anything. We were hunting for apartments between doctor appointments,” Sonali has said later.

However, in between the rush, Sonali noted that she was on her feet, and out there. “At the end of the second day, I said if I can be active, it means I have it in me. My body is much more resilient than I give it credit for,” she told media later.

Coming to terms with the metastatic cancer was difficult for Sonali; but it changed her worldview. She gives all the credit to her friends and family who kept visiting her during the six months of treatment in NYC.

The recuperation period was one of new discoveries for Sonali. She realised that until then, she did not know the traumas that people were dealing with – not even those whom she had known for 10-15 years.

What she understood first hand was that everybody has enough to deal with on their plate; that while circumstances can never be perfect, responses can be.

In these times of bonding, Sonali has said later, there were times when she forgot about her illness.

Switching on the Sunshine

Having been associated with a healthy lifestyle till then, Sonali’s first instinct was to hide her illness - as it would mean the end of her brand. But her positivity won in the long term, and she shared most of her battle with Cancer on Instagram.

Sonali has said she wanted to see the best of things, not as a victim, and that she ‘definitely did not want self-pity.’ All her posts are accompanied by hashtags #switchonthesunshine and #onedayatatime.

“Every time I have put out a post on Cancer, I’ve maintained the reality of the situation without being fake about it, and yet not lose the positivity. It’s a little boring to be sad and whiny,” she has shared.

Sonali’s son Ranveer Behl, now 14, has also been a support through her recovery. Although he was at a summer camp in Austria when Sonali was diagnosed, she wanted to ensure that they are transparent with Ranveer and go through it together, as a family.

“As much as we wanted to protect him, we knew it was important to tell him all the facts. We've always been open and honest with him, and it wasn't going to be different this time. He took the news in a mature manner… and instantly became a source of strength and positivity for me,” reads an Instagram post by Sonali Bendre, who had authored The Modern Gurukul: My Experiments with Parenting in 2015.

Sonali’s opening up - not in a way of seeking sympathy, but living one day at a time to the fullest - inspires one to not succumb to the tragedy of it all. More Cancer survivors may be switching on the sunshine daily, thanks to her.

  • #SheInspires
More from
Real Voices
MAKERS India
Shabnam Ali: The First Woman To Be Hanged In Independent India
Feb 20
MAKERS India
Priya Ramani Verdict, Unnao Incident And More: Here Is What Women Discussed Last Week
Feb 20
06:25
MAKERS India
Jhansi’s Gurleen Chawla Defied Traditional Farmers To Grow Strawberries in Bundelkhand’s Parched Land
Feb 18
MAKERS India
Nodeep Kaur, Priya Ramani Case and More: Topics That Ruled Social Media Last Week
Feb 13
MAKERS India
At 16, Race Walker Reshma Patel Breaks Two National Records in a Fortnight
Feb 11
MAKERS India
105-Year-Old Padma Shri Awardee Pappammal Proves Age Is Just A Number
Feb 07

What to read next

  • DMK Inviting Vairamuthu To Event Shows How The #Metoo Movement Is A Political Failure

    MAKERS India
  • Meet Gitanjali Yadav: The Botanist Who Is Redefining Our Relationship With Plants

    MAKERS India
  • Breaking The Taboo: Let’s (Not) Talk About Sex

    MAKERS India
  • Bumble’s 31-year-old CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd Becomes a ‘Rare Female Billionaire’

    MAKERS India
  • Meet DIG Aparna Kumar: The Heroic IPS Officer Leading Rescue Operations In Uttarakhand

    MAKERS India
  • Jayalalithaa: The Icon Who Owned The Narrative In Cinema And Politics

    MAKERS India
  • Meet Manasa Varanasi, the 23 Year Old Miss India 2020 Winner From Telangana

    MAKERS India