Remember the song “Haye Rama Rama Haaye”? The girl from the video who suddenly shot to fame for resembling Aishwarya Rai Bachchan? That was Sneha Ullal. Interestingly, acting was never part of her plan. But as fate would have it, the film industry found her before she could even think about entering it.
Sneha had no connection to Bollywood when, during a casual walk on the streets of Mumbai, someone spotted her and she unexpectedly landed a film offer opposite Salman Khan. Almost overnight, she became a sensation. Many compared her looks to Aishwarya Rai, while others linked the resemblance to Salman Khan’s recent breakup with his Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam co-star. However, Sneha says her decision to accept the film had nothing to do with stardom or a fascination for films. She simply wanted to bring some positivity into her home while her mother was battling cancer. At the time, Sneha was just 16 years old, while Salman Khan was 38.
Speaking to AlphaNeon Studioz, Sneha Ullal recalled, “I had just completed my 10th grade and newly joined college when Arpita Khan’s friends spotted me. It was around the same time they were auditioning for Lucky’s character. I am assuming they told Salman Khan about me, and then they reached out to me.”
She further shared, “When I was approached for the movie, I was personally in a very bad place. My mom was undergoing treatment for cancer. The environment in our house was quite depressing. I took up Lucky to divert my family’s mind. My mom loved travelling, so I accepted the offer to do this. It changed a lot of things for me irrespective of whether or not I was interested in the art.”
Reflecting on her sudden rise to fame, Sneha admitted the experience came with heavy sacrifices. “I received a lot of love for the movie. It was a difficult journey. That film took a lot from me, but at the same time gave me a lot too. It took away my freedom, my college life. I never got to live my teenage years or my 20s. I went from being 16 to an adult overnight. It was a compromise. I didn’t understand it then, but now I do.” She, however, added that “Salman Khan took good care of me.”
Apart from the film itself, Sneha Ullal also became widely known as Aishwarya Rai’s lookalike. Speaking about the comparisons, she said, “When Aishwarya Rai became Miss World, people around me would say I looked a lot like her. Later, the PR game was such, and since I debuted opposite Salman Khan, people connected the dots in that angle. But it never bothered me. I was too young for all that.”
Despite her lack of interest in acting initially, her looks brought her several offers from a very young age. “I would receive many offers since childhood. Every time I visited India from Oman, people from various brands would approach me. But we were extremely scared of this industry. I am not very glamorous; I’m extremely tomboyish. People often ask where this actress disappeared after Lucky, but I was never sure about acting. I was very confused. I didn’t understand the technicalities and I was never into glamour.”
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Sneha revealed that her family’s fears about the industry also played a role in her hesitation. “Some members of my family told me not to take up the film because the industry is indecent and scary,” she said.
Outside films, Sneha Ullal has found purpose in animal activism. “If I weren’t an actor, I would start a business related to animals and the planet. I am an animal activist,” she shared, adding, “I am very prominent in the animal activist community. I have rescued many animals and I hope to continue doing more.”
She also opened up about how she turned vegetarian after an incident that changed her perspective completely. “When I entered the industry, I was a non-vegetarian. But one incident changed my life. Someone was troubling a goat and when I asked them not to, they questioned my eating habits. After that, everything changed.”
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After her Hindi films failed to recreate the success of Lucky: No Time for Love, Sneha Ullal transitioned to Telugu, Kannada, and Bengali cinema. Now, at 38, she says she hopes to find meaningful roles that focus less on glamour and more on substance.
“I am working my way back to Bollywood — the correct way. I want to build relationships with good people in the industry. I have a vision of the kind of actress I want to become,” she said.
Sneha Ullal has Sako 360, Scar, Third October, and a Telugu film in the pipeline.
