In July 2018, the actor was diagnosed with cancer and she underwent the treatment in New York. She returned to the city in December. Sonali said though the disease is scary, early diagnosis can make the treatment less painful.

"Early detection is most important. Right now the disease is less scary the treatment is actually more frightening and painful. If it were detected early, the cost of treatment would have been less. It would also have been a lesser painful treatment," Sonali said Saturday at the fifth International Conference "CAHOCON 2019", organised by Consortium of Accredited Healthcare Organisation (CAHO).