Former Miss India Sayali Bhagat won’t need to stretch her acting skills too far in her next movie as she will be playing a glamorous actress! Rapidly developing a reputation in comedy following her role in Paying Guest, which starred Shreyas Talpade and also featured Celina Jaitley, Riya Sen and Neha Dhupia, Sayali’s next movie Chaloo is also a comedy.
Well known for her social activism, Sayali has raised a good deal of money for mobile hospitals and orphans. She recently attended a charity function in Uganda where she presented a cheque to the Ugandan prime minister Dr Appolo Nsimbabi. “I have been to South Africa but Uganda is so unlike the perception we have of Africa,” she says, “People were so warm and friendly. Also in my speech, I mentioned that I envy people and other Indians living there as they have an opportunity to live so close to nature, eat fruits and vegetables without fertilizers and pesticides and live without pollution. I earned a lot of respect being an Indian, as they love Mahatma Gandhi.”
Sayali is a great devotee of Baba Amte, the lawyer and social activist, who spent his lifetime working for the poor and oppressed in the villages of India. Adopting Gandhism, he worked firstly for the anti-British Quit India Movement and then later devoted himself to working with lepers and the disabled. “Baba Amte has always been a source of inspiration for me,” Sayali explains, “He is my role model and he fought for the rights of the common man.”
