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Soni Razdan

Soni Mahesh Bhatt, born and known professionally as Soni Razdan, is a British actress and director who works in Indian Hindi-language films. Part of the Bhatt family of Indian cinema, she is married to film director Mahesh Bhatt and is the mother of actress Alia Bhatt.

Early life

Soni Razdan was born on 25 October, 1956 in the Small Heath area of Birmingham, England to a British mother of German descent, Gertrude Hoelzer and an Indian father of Kashmiri Pandit descent, Narendra Nath Razdan.

Soni Razdan grew up in Bombay, India.

Career

Razdan started her career in English theatre with John Fowles' The Collector and her Hindi stage career with Bund Darvaze, Satyadev Dubey's adaptation of Jean Paul Sartre's No Exit.

Her photos were seen by Franco Zeffirelli who wanted to cast her as Mary in his miniseries, Jesus of Nazareth. The role, however, was given to Olivia Hussey and Razdan was cast as a young grieving mother as well as appearing as an extra in other scenes.

She appeared as Sulochana in the Doordarshan TV series Buniyaad. She also acted in Indian TV serials Saahil, Gaatha and has been a regular on Indian television. In 2002, she turned to direction with Aur Phir Ek Din on Star Plus, a take-off on One Fine Day starring Michelle Pfeiffer and George Clooney.

She has also acted in Bollywood movies. Razdan directed a film called Love Affair that was expected to be released in 2016, but did not. She acted in Meghna Gulzar's Raazi which also starred her daughter Alia in the lead role. This was the first time when she shared the screen with Alia where she played the character of Alia's mother. Soni played the lead role in the film Yours Truly where she portrayed the character of a lonely middle-aged government employee Mithi Kumar. She also appeared as the Imaaduddin Shah's mother in the 2007 movie Dil Dosti Etc. In 2018, in the light of the MeToo movement Razdan said that once she was nearly raped by someone on a film set. They did not succeed and she did not file a complaint against the attempted rape.

Personal life

Razdan married Indian film director Mahesh Bhatt on 20 April 1986. Bhatt did not want to divorce his first wife, so he and Razdan converted to Islam prior to marriage and held a very private nikaah ceremony. Upon converting to Islam Soni chose the name Sakina as her Muslim name.

She is the mother of Shaheen Bhatt (born 28 November 1988) and actress Alia Bhatt (born 15 March 1993), step mother of Pooja Bhatt & Rahul Bhatt.

Razdan has stated that she has lived in India since she was a 3 month old and that she carries an Overseas Citizenship of India.