Does the name Sonika Gill ring a bell? Yes, it’s the blue-eyed actor who played Vivia in Subhash Ghai’s 1989 blockbuster action romance Ram Lakhan. With no godfather in Bollywood, Sonika, a trained classical dancer from Delhi, made inroads into Bollywood through minor supporting roles in films for almost a decade before she got her breakthrough in the Anil Kapoor-starrer.
Sonika Gill was actively involved in the cultural activities at her school, often performing on the stage with her schoolmate and future ace singer Sonu Nigam. When she moved to Mumbai, Sonika did minor roles in films like Nazrana Pyar Ka (1980), Prem Geet (1981), Siskiyan (1983), Aaj Ki Awaz (1984), Anokha Insaan (1986), and Main Aur Tum (1987), before signing her first major film, Manoj Kumar’s Clerk (1989).
She soon got a call from Subhash Ghai’s office, who after the first meeting itself, signed her for a three-film deal. While rising sensations like Sangeeta Bijlani and Sonu Walia were also in the running, the filmmaker opted for Sonika because he had faith in her tenacity despite the hearsay about her unprofessional ways on film sets, including drinking alcohol and smoking.
“I’ve never smoked or touched alcohol. But there were some people spreading this ‘praise’ all around so they could push their favourites. I’d just call it ‘praise,’” recalled Sonika in an interview with Bollywood Thikana in 2024. She recalled how Subhash Ghai didn’t pay heed to the rumours and signed her because he felt the one who gets falsely targeted often has something special within them. He’d encountered the same case with Sonika’s Ram Lakhan co-star Jackie Shroff, whom he launched with the 1983 hit action romance Hero.
Sonika Gill had a breakthrough with Ram Lakhan.
Sonika Gill lost out her Khalnayak role
After the box office success of Ram Lakhan, Sonika Gill became a household name despite the presence of more senior actors like Madhuri Dixit and Dimple Kapadia in the film. Her three-movie deal with Subhash Ghai’s production house Mukta Films also included his 1993 blockbuster gangster film Khalnayak, starring Sanjay Dutt, Madhuri, and Jackie Shroff. However, as fate would have it, Sonika never starred in that film.
She met with a career-altering car accident in January 1992, which led to a leg fracture. Although she was operated on by one of India’s best surgeons, Sonika ended up losing a few films because of the long recovery. This included Khalnayak, where she lost her part to Ramya Krishnan, who played the mistress of Dutt’s protagonist Balu. A heartbroken Sonika even visited the set with the help of a crutch, only to be reprimanded by Ghai, who warned her that such optics could cause more career setbacks for her.
Khalnayak, though the biggest setback to Sonika Gill’s career, wasn’t the only one. Her dance song with Sanjay Dutt in Vijay Reddy’s 1992 action romance Jeena Marna Tere Sang was chopped off. She managed to do her dance while sitting in Mehul Kumar’s Tirangaa (1993). She also did her scenes with Rishi Kapoor while sitting in Kalpatru’s Ghar Ki Izzat (1994). Raaj Kumar showed great empathy when he saw her swollen feet and showed up early on set every day to film his scenes with her.
Story continues below this ad
Move to Dubai and return
Disappointed with the unfortunate turn in her career, along with another personal tragedy of her brother being shot at, Sonika Gill decided to leave India and relocated to Dubai. She then began working as a manager at The Moghul Room, a popular restaurant owned by former actor Rajan Sippy. But after the restaurant shut shop, Sonika moved back to India.
She encountered more personal losses after the demises of her younger brother and mother, whom she was very close to. Sonika chose to return to films in order to keep her mind off the tragedies. She did films like My Friend Ganesha 3 (2010), Akkad Bakkad Bam Be Bo (2012), Daal Mein Kuch Kaala Hai (2021), and the television show called Anamika (2012).
Sonika Gill met with a life-altering accident in 1992.
Now lives in a blended family
Beyond her turbulent professional life, Sonika Gill had her fair share of struggles in personal life as well. She kept her distance from romancing men offscreen in her early career because once female actors got committed or married back in the 1980s, they’d stop getting work. She didn’t wish that upon herself, having encountered a difficult childhood. Her father left her mother when she was in school, which prompted her mother to keep working till Sonika began earning for herself. “I wanted to prove to my father, and also my mother, that I could make a name for herself,” Sonika said a couple of years ago.
Sonika didn’t get married till she turned 40. She revealed she was even propositioned by several co-stars to tie the knot, but she kept her distance from them because she didn’t want a partner who drinks. In a 2024 interview, she put an end to the rumours that she’s been married twice. “I’m not Droupadi,” she said, laughing. Sonika added that luck didn’t favour her for years since her engagements with different prospective men broke six times, including when she had her accident in 1992 and when she moved back from Dubai to get married.
Story continues below this ad
Also Read: Trisha attends Vijay’s swearing-in ceremony as Tamil Nadu CM, hugs actor-politician’s mother
But it was a year after her mother’s death that Sonika Gill finally met her husband, builder Mitesh Rughani. “I didn’t know I was a maanglik. So, when I got to know, I did a puja and then got seventh time lucky,” revealed Sonika. She now has a daughter with her husband, and lives with his first wife and her two stepsons in a blended marriage. “How can a woman hate another woman? She’s also someone’s daughter and wife, like I am,” added Sonika.
