Actress Sonia Mann has been in the news recently for criticising political parties like the Congress and the BJP, accusing them for being responsible for many youngsters being attracted to terrorism.
She pointed out that before hanging people like Yakub Memon, political leaders with criminal records should be sentenced first.
“Saving criminal politicians will encourage more rioters while on the other hand hanging Bhullars, Rajoanas, Gurus, Memons will produce more terrorists. Both events are equally against public interest. But former is the CAUSE and latter is the EFFECT,” she posted.
“I was criticised for those comments. People wondered that I was an actress and why I was talking about these issues,” says Sonia.
“Then I posted my father’s letter that he had written to me when I was 16 days old. I am a victim of a terrorist act and my father was gunned down by Khalistan militants,” she says.
Hailing from a village near Amritsar, Sonia’s father worked for a newspaper that was a mouthpiece for the Communist Party (CPI-ML). “My father always stood by the poor. He knew that he was going to die and sent a letter through his friend to me. He asked me to fulfil his dream and wishes,” adds the actress.
Every year on his death anniversary, September 26, people of the village still assemble and pay tributes to her father. “Wherever I am, I will be at my native village on that day. On that day, we serve food, etc. to the poor,” she says.
“I have participated in many social activities and I am doing my part. I want to fulfill my father’s wish and I am working towards it,” she says.
When asked whether she was interested in joining politics, she says, “‘Being in politics’ has a larger context than what is normally understood. What my father expected from me was to stand by the common people fearlessly… to stand by those who are being discriminated against. That was what I always do.
“As far as acting is concerned, it’s my passion, profession and my mode of interacting with the world. So I never find it conflicting with my political and social views,” says Sonia.
While the actress is not interested in today’s politics, she adds that she will join later.
She had got a film offer when she became the Limca Fresh Face of Punjab. “I acted with Dara Singh, wherein he played my grandfather,” says Sonia. That was her first Punjabi film and that’s how she got into films. Later, she reached Mumbai to pursue acting.
“I got a Malayalam film opposite Darshan and have also done other Punjab films,” she says. She made her Telugu debut with Dhee Ante Dhee last year. Now, she has signed her second Telugu film and is also busy with a couple of Hindi and Punjabi films. “I am doing a film opposite Akshay Oberoi (Vivek Oberoi’s cousin),” she says.
She feels that everyone, whether an actor or from any other field, should have social responsibility. “I think every artiste, be it visual arts or performing arts, must have an outlook and a vision beyond the horizon of ‘success’ in her/his particular field,” she says.
