Sonalika Joshi recalls going to audition for Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah on Shailesh Datar's suggestion; says 'I was very sceptical as I had to leave my 4-year-old daughter alone'

Sonalika Joshi's character Madhavi Bhide from Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah takes you on a tour of those zanzhanit dishes and her achaar papad as soon as you hear her name. The actress has been pulling off the character for 17 years now and fans are enjoying her role in the show. In a recent conversation with Rajshri Marathi, the actress opened up about how she bagged the show and not Mandar Chandwadkar, but this actor was supposed to play Atmaram Bhide's role.

Shailesh (Datar) is the reason how I got Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah. He had gone to audition for the show but he was already in talks for another show as well and Taarak Mehta's team wasn't allowing an adjustment for him to do two shows so he decided to drop the offer for Bhide's character and chose another show.

Shailesh then told me that there was a role for Bhide's wife, so I should give it a shot and audition for it. That is when I thought of auditioning for Madhavi in the show. I was really sceptical about it initially, but because Shailesh had suggested this one, I decided to give it a shot.

My daughter was very small when the audition came. She was barely 4-5 years old. Leaving her alone was very difficult for me. That is why I used to refuse offers and avoid going to auditions. We used to stay in Kandivali so to travel to Andheri and come back was very difficult. We didn't have a car back then, but we were okay financially.

I had an intuition that Shailesh had suggested and the audition was in Kandivali itself so I thought I should go. I requested my neighbours to take care of Aarya for an hour and I will quickly come back after giving the audition. I quickly prepared for the character as Shailesh had given me the description.

Somehow, I don't know what came to my mind, I wore a paithani saree and was dressed up as a typical Maharashtrian lady. I knew details about the character but who would have thought I would go so prepared? The director was quite happy looking at me and we hit off well as he had seen my work. Luckily, producer was also present so when he saw me, he knew that he had found his Madhavi.

The typical Maharashtrian look worked wonders for me, he selected me without the whole process. I call it destiny, that I trusted Shailesh's words and went for the audition. Had I avoided it like previous offers then Taarak Mehta wouldn't have happened for me.

Sonalika shared that when she shifted to Mumbai, she started her acting career with theatre plays and after that, the actress had gotten her first show which was in Hindi titled Udan Chhoo. After that, she transitioned into Marathi Shows and continued to do multiple shows for a long time.