Milind Soman planted 30,000 trees at his Lonavala house: ‘People were burning everything’

5 min readMumbaiJun 13, 2026 11:57 AM IST

Milind Soman was last seen in the film Emergency.

(Photo: Milind Soman, Instagram)

Once a supermodel and long regarded as the epitome of fitness, Milind Soman has been away from mainstream Hindi films for quite some time. He was last seen in Kangana Ranaut’s Emergency, where he played the role of Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. Recently, the actor opened up about his absence from Hindi cinema and why film offers have become infrequent. He also spoke about planting 30,000 trees at his home in Lonavala.

‘I have planted more than 30,000 trees myself’

During a conversation on Sonu Sharma’s YouTube channel, Milind also spoke about his property in Lonavala and his deep personal commitment to environmental conservation. “I have a place in Lonavala where I have planted more than 30,000 trees myself. When I bought it in 1997, I told myself I had to plant trees there because what people had done earlier was burn everything to the ground. Developers sometimes come and, to showcase land, they cut down trees. It’s a very sad thing.”

A few years ago, speaking about his love for nature, Milind Soman took to Instagram to share a workout video and opened up about his fondness for forest bathing. “Trees are my favourite beings on the planet, and the Japanese concept of shinrin-yoku, or forest bathing, is something I love,” he wrote. For the unversed, shinrin means “forest” and yoku translates to “bath” in Japanese. The practice, often described as a form of nature therapy, involves immersing oneself in a forest environment and absorbing its sights, sounds and scents through the senses. It is believed to have several physical and mental health benefits, including reducing stress and improving overall wellbeing.

‘Don’t get a lot of offers from Hindi films’

In the same chat, Milind revealed that the only reason behind his staying away from films is the lack of offers. “I don’t get a lot of offers from Hindi films, not at all. I would say naa ke barabar (almost negligible). In fact, everybody keeps asking me why I am not doing Hindi films anymore. But the truth is, my last film wasn’t that long ago. It was Emergency, where Kangana Ranaut played Indira Gandhi and I played Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw. I got really good reviews for that, and I was very happy with the role.”

He further added that while Hindi film offers are rare, OTT projects continue to come his way: “Aise bohot saare offers nahi aate hain Hindi films ke liye. OTT ke liye aate hain, woh main kar leta hoon.  (There aren’t many offers for Hindi films. I do get offers for OTT, and I take those up.) I just did a series called The Royals, I did the fourth season of Four More Shots Please!, and recently I did a Tamil OTT show for the first time with Vijay Sethupathi. Of course, I want to work more. I enjoy acting. I’m not obsessed with it, but I do enjoy it.”

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Replaced from Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar

One of the most controversial chapters in Milind’s career was his exit from Mansoor Khan’s 1992 film Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikandar. In an exclusive conversation with SCREEN, Khan reflected on the film’s troubled early days and revealed that the original cast had made the production extremely difficult. “I won’t take names, but those people were absolutely unprofessional. They made life miserable, not just for me, but for the entire crew. The film was turning out really badly, and it also nearly stalled,” he said.

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Khan added that several actors he had let go later attempted to return to the project once things began to improve. “Some of those same people came back to me later, including Milind Soman,” he revealed. “They didn’t understand filmmaking. They didn’t understand humility, or the director’s role, or that the film is bigger than any individual, bigger than the actor, the director, or the producer. They came in with strange ideas. But again, the mistake was mine. I shouldn’t have cast them.”

According to Khan, the turning point came when Milind Soman exited the film and Deepak Tijori was brought in. “Why I call it a child of destiny is because Milind went out, and Deepak came in. Deepak had actually tested with Milind. But Milind got the part based on his looks and physique. I wasn’t making casting decisions properly back then,” Khan confessed.

Over the years, Milind has appeared in films such as Valley of Flowers, 16 December, Rules Pyaar Ka Superit Formula, Bheja Fry, Bajirao Mastani and Chef.