Remember when Saba Azad took to her Instagram Stories to shut down those who assumed she didn’t need work anymore simply because she was dating Hrithik Roshan? This mindset–that a woman no longer has professional ambitions after dating/marrying a prominent artiste–has been around for decades. Actress Soni Razdan, now known to many as Alia Bhatt’s mother, faced something very similar early in her career.
Soni Razdan married filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in 1986 after the two met through a mutual friend. At the time, she was steadily working and establishing a strong foothold in the film industry. However, almost overnight, the offers began to dry up. The perception was that, since she was now the wife of an established director, she no longer “needed” work.
In an interview with News18 Showsha, the veteran actress recalled, “When I started out, I was doing really well. And then suddenly, I got married. I wasn’t getting any work after that. I got feedback from somewhere that, since she’s now so-and-so’s wife, why does she need to work? I got so angry!”
The drought eventually ended when she was cast in Buniyaad, Ramesh Sippy’s landmark television series, that became a turning point in her career. “Luckily, Buniyaad happened and after that, I got to work in some really good films,” she said.
Despite carving her own path, Soni Razdan admits to one lingering frustration–being overshadowed by her family ties. “All my life, even now, I have been seen as somebody else’s somebody,” she confessed, pointing to how her identity often gets linked to her husband, her daughters, or her extended film family rather than her individual body of work.
Still, Soni Razdan has continued to stay relevant, choosing projects across mediums. The actress is currently seen in Amazon Prime Video’s latest show Birds of Paradise.
