Actress Sonakshi Sinha has lately been getting all the love and attention for playing the vengeful Fareedan in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s OTT debut, ‘Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar’. While she claims it was not easy to do dual roles of mother-daughter Rehanna and Fareedan in the Netflix series, he thanks Bhansali for his trust in her capabilities.

“If you give me the right roles and right directors, I can do magic,” Sonakshi told news agency PTI in an interview. Well, it cannot go unnoticed that Sonakshi has come a long way since her debut with ‘Dabangg’ opposite Salman Khan in 2010. She was lately praised for her  no-nonsense small-town cop in Reema Kagti’s ‘Dahaad’ as well. 

Crediting the likes of Kagti, Vikramaditya Motwane (‘Lootera’) among others, for seeing her in a different light, Sonakshi added, “I’m just looking for parts that truly challenge me and help me reach my potential… Once I changed my trajectory into doing the kind of roles that really challenged me, I ended up becoming a better actor. And all those experiences have brought me to where I am today,” she added.

Sonakshi, 36, now wants to work with filmmakers like Imtiaz Ali, Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Ashutosh Gowariker, Rohit Shetty and Priyadarshan, and wants to be an actor which a filmmaker can cast in any genre or role. She was further quoted as saying, “I can play a police officer from rural Rajasthan (in ‘Dahaad’) and I can also play a courtesan from Lahore (in ‘Heeramandi’), who’s exquisite in every way. I can also play an action role as ‘Akira’ or play a hopeless lover like I did in ‘Lootere’, or do the song and dance as in ‘Rowdy Rathore’, ‘Dabangg’ or ‘Son of Sardaar’, I can do all of that. I don’t want to put myself in any box.”

Nonetheless, while her act has been praised, ‘Heeramandi’ has earned polarising reviews. Addressing the show’s critics, Sonakshi said, “Everybody’s entitled to their opinion and you can’t please everyone. I got to learn that early in my career that there will always be someone who will have a different taste. So, that’s fine, you can’t hold that against anyone. We are very happy to focus on the positives. On Instagram, it’s all about ‘Heeramandi’, the girls are imitating fashion, makeup, jewellery and making reels on the songs.”

Now she is looking forward to the release of ‘Kakuda’, a horror-comedy with director Aditya Sarpotdar besides ‘Nikita Roy and the Book of Darkness’, which is helmed by her brother Kussh Sinha. The actress will also be seen in a romantic thriller with first-time director Karan Rawal.