Soni Razdan Recalls Being Written Off After Marriage and How Television Revived Her Acting Career

Veteran actor Soni Razdan has opened up about a challenging phase in her acting career when film opportunities became limited after her marriage. The actor recalled being “written off” by the industry during that period and said television eventually helped her find consistent work and return to acting.

Speaking to PTI, the 69-year-old actor said she struggled to find substantial film roles after marrying filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in 1986. While she continued to make occasional appearances in films directed by her husband, including Daddy, Sadak, Sir and Gumrah, regular acting work became difficult to find.

“I was sort of written off, people didn’t bother about me at all. Then I came back. In fact, Siddharth P Malhotra’s father was the one whose company gave me work consistently. So, I was shooting every month, but not for more than eight or 10 days,” she said.

Television eventually became an important part of rebuilding her career. During the 1990s, she appeared in shows including Junoon and Saahil, which helped her remain active as an actor and find a steady stream of work.

“That (TV) was what gave me the strength to come back into acting. Then after that, things followed on from there. So, many other things happened,” she said.

The actor also reflected on the parallel cinema movement of the 1980s and the changing opportunities for performers during the period, recalling the work of filmmakers and actors including Shyam Benegal, Aparna Sen, Naseeruddin Shah and Shabana Azmi.

“They (Naseer and Shabana) set a trend at the time with alternative cinema that grew in those days... They got great roles. Everybody wasn’t as fortunate. But we followed on from there and did different things. Television came in, then films changed a bit, and then OTT came, so there’s an evolution which has taken place over so many years,” Razdan said.

Looking back at her career, Razdan said her relationship with acting and public perception has changed with age, noting that she is now more interested in the quality of a role than its length or how she may be perceived on screen.

“I feel free now, I’ve shaken off a lot of baggage of what I had when I was younger. Also, it doesn’t matter so much how you look. Like, those days you are so conscious of how you look, you’ve to look a certain way, you’ve to be this, you’ve to be that because you are in that age. When you are older, you become much freer. I’m having fun, actually,” she said.

Razdan is currently part of the Netflix series Shaque, which features an ensemble cast including Parineeti Chopra, Tahir Raj Bhasin, Harleen Sethi, Jennifer Winget, Sumeet Vyas, Anup Soni and Chaitanya Choudhry.

The actor also revealed that she is developing a complex film that she intends to direct, though she will not act in it.

“I’宁 planning to direct something, and I’m working on it. We unfortunately can’t talk about it. It’s a movie, and it’s very interesting. It’s taking a long time to put together because it’s quite complex. I’m not going to act in it,” she said.

Razdan married Mahesh Bhatt in 1986, and the couple have two daughters, Shaheen Bhatt and Alia Bhatt.