Sonali Bendre reveals she took 'Humma Humma' for this reason: 'I was terrible at dancing...'

In a conversation with Mid-day's The Bombay Film Story, Sonali Bendre recalled shooting for 'Humma Humma' and why she thought of leaving the industry if she failed to do it

Sonali Bendre is a well known actress who has worked in films like 'Sarfarosh', 'Hum Saath Saath Hain', 'Diljale' among others. Apart from her roles, she is also known to be associated with some of the best songs from the 90s. She was also a part of the hit song 'Humma Humma' from Mani Ratnam's 1995 film 'Bombay'. 

In a conversation for Mid-day's 'The Bombay Film Story', actress Sonali said that songs like 'Humma Humma' are today termed as item songs while that was not the case back then. However, she was skeptical of being a part of 'Humma Humma' despite being part of songs in her previous movies. The hesitation came largely from her non-dancing background. 

"At that time, the challenge in front of me was that I couldn't dance. I had an 'English Babu Desi Mem' where Saroj Khan was ready to kill me because I couldn't dance. And I was playing a bar dance.  I was struggling. Every hour I was not working, I was trying to learn how to dance. And Ahmed (Khan) was Saroj ji's assistant at that point. Ahmed would bribe me with chocolates and ice cream. He would pick me up from my home in Lokhandwala and take me to a rehearsal hall. He would teach me and when I would say 'I can't do it. I'm fed up', he would say, 'come on, one step, just once more'. He would bribe me with chocolate and ice cream like a little child," she said recalling being terrible at dancing. 

Sonali Bendre was not sure about how or why she landed the song ‘Humma Humma’ and had no clue what the song would do to her career. “I don't know why I landed it. I remember that I was supposed to dance with Prabhu Deva's brother. Prabhu Deva was the choreographer. It was going to be a killing dance. And I said, 'you know what? If I can do this, great, and if I can't, then I know I should be going home'.  So it was this kind of weird thinking that I made me do it,” she said adding that she also thought about it helping her earn good money and her team as well. 

"I remember going to the rehearsal hall there and practicing. The song was almost like one shot and they edited it. They were doing really long, long shots and I remember at one point when on the set Sundaram Masterji, Prabhu Deva's father, had come and he gave me hundred bucks and said, 'it's amazing that you did this'. And I said, 'Oh my God, I have a place in this industry'. I think I can pull this off and there is something over here that I can look forward," she recalled. 

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