Soni Razdan says she wished to work after Alia Bhatt’s birth, told producer ‘don’t tell my husband’

Actor Soni Razdan has spoken about the challenges she had to face when trying to find work after the birth of her second daughter, actor Alia Bhatt. In a new interview, Soni revealed how producers would dismiss her, because she was a married woman.

Soni got married to filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in 1986. The couple had daughter Shaheen Bhatt in 1988 and Alia in 1993. Shaheen is a writer now and Alia is among the most popular young actors in Bollywood. Soni, meanwhile, has been enjoying a second innings of her career with different roles in films and OTT platforms.

Speaking to Film Companion, Soni said that she told her producer friend not to let Mahesh know about her idea of joining the workforce again. “I don’t know which child I’d had. I think it was after Alia was born, if I’m not mistaken. I wanted to start working again. I went to a producer friend and I said ‘this is what I want to do and don’t tell my husband that I want to start working’,” she said.

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“So he was very sweet and he got me this elderly lady who was very respectable. She started to put my name out. She used to visit all these offices, that’s how it was done. Your manager went from office to office and said Soni Razdan ‘kaam karna chahti hain’. The response was, ‘Kyu?’ She’d tell them, ‘Because she is a good actress’. ‘Lekin woh abhi shaadi shuda haina?’ That was the answer she used to get. That was what I was up against. If I am sitting here today, I think that is a big achievement,” Soni added.

Soni was recently seen with Vinay Pathak on an episode of Kaali Peeli Tales. Her next release will be Netflix’s Call My Agent with Ayush Mehra, Rajat Kapoor, Ahana Kumra and others.