Banita Sandhu talks about her permanent move to India, being forgotten in the industry, Bridgerton appearance and scrutiny over her relationship with AP Dhillon
Banita Sandhu, known for her roles in films like October and Sardar Udham, is an Indian-origin actor, who used to live in Wales. However, recently she moved her base to India, and she says it shows her commitment to Bollywood: “I think me just even shifting here shows my commitment and focus to this industry. My mindset hasn’t changed since the beginning of my career as it always said that I just want to do good work and work my hardest. India feels like a second home to me. That’s why even this move, it doesn’t feel like I’m jumping into the deep end. It just feels like I’m coming home.”
She adds, “This year, I’ve been wanting to come, but I had work commitments in in the UK which I had to finish up. So as soon as that got done around October, I finally had the get go. I could come and move here which was perfect timing for winters too, because I can’t handle a cold weather shock.”
Ask if she ever felt out of place here owing to her growing up years abroad and Banita Sandhu says, “India has just embraced me with open arms and there’s been no discrimination at all in terms of where I’m from. I would say I’ve probably faced more discrimination in the West being a brown working actress there. I’ve definitely lost out on roles because of the way that I look, I’ve been told that.”
Banita made a brief appearance in the American series Bridgerton, which grabbed a lot of eyeballs even in India. Reacting to its popularity, she says, “The people here are the best. I never expected to have that response but just to feel the warmth and love, it’s an incredible feeling and I’m just so proud to be Indian and it made me so proud to represent our country.”
Apart from her films, Banita got recognised for her appearance in singer AP Dhillon’s music video of With You. But she insists that people did forget about her in the industry in between: “With this industry, it’s just so quick paced and transitory. I think people forget that it takes a long time to shoot a project. So, you can’t really be in cinemas or on screen like every other week. But having said that, I think the music video was the first time I was presented in a different way. It was a bit more light-hearted and fun and flowy, whereas all of my other creative work in India has been more serious, where I’m not wearing makeup and it’s been more emotionally intense. So, this was like a fun new avatar of me, and I’m so glad it was received so well because I was worried that people were going to be like, ‘wait, what?’.”
With the video, her relationship with AP Dhillon also got under scrutiny. Ask her how it impacted her, and without saying much, she iterates, “My focus is work and everything else is just noise.”
