Actress Sonakshi Sinha, who made her Bollywood debut with the 2010 blockbuster Dabangg, compared the casting process for the film to an “arranged marriage setup”. In a recent conversation with Kareena Kapoor on podcast What Women Want Season 5, Sonakshi shared her journey to bag the coveted role of Salman Khan’s love interest Rajjo in the film.

Sonakshi revealed, “Dabangg just happened. Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan saw me at Amrita Arora’s wedding. At that time I had lost all my weight. They told me that they were writing something and they thought I would be perfect for the role. I never took them seriously.”

However, things escalated rapidly when Khan Bhai visited his house to narrate the script. “They came to my house to narrate the script. My whole family sat and listened. He nodded, shook hands and left. Next thing I knew, I was on the Dabangg sets. It felt like an arranged marriage,” Sonakshi said, laughing.

Despite the suddenness, He realized his passion for acting Once she was on the set. “And I’ve been doing it ever since,” she said.

Sonakshi had earlier mentioned her surprise at being selected for ‘Dabangg’. She told PTI, “I was studying fashion designing. I was an overweight teen who had just lost weight. Nobody really asked if I wanted to do the film—I was just told I was doing it. Everything happened so fast. Once I started working, I couldn’t stop. The change was so natural, it felt like it was meant to happen.

Released on September 10, 2010, Dabangg was a major success, spawning two sequels: Dabangg 2 in 2012 and Dabangg 3 in 2019, cementing Sonakshi’s place in Bollywood.