Soni Razdan (born 25 October 1956) is a British

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), lit ...

and

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, ...

who works in Hindi films. She is married to

Mahesh Bhatt Mahesh Bhatt (born 20 September 1948) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter known for his works in Hindi cinema. A stand-out film from his earlier period is '' Saaransh'' (1984), screened at the 14th Moscow International Film ...

and is the mother of Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt.

Early life

Razdan was born in Small Heath

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...

, West Midlands,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

to a British-German mother, Gertrude Hoelzer and a Indian Kashmiri Pandit father, Narendra Nath Razdan and grew up in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

, Maharashtra,

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

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 Jesus, likely from he, יֵשׁוּעַ, translit=Yēšūaʿ, label=Hebrew/Aramaic ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ or Jesus of Nazareth (among other names and titles), was a first-century Jewish preacher and religiou ...

''. 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 Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest b ...

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 StarPlus is an Indian Hindi language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly ''Star India''), a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company India. The network's programming consists of family dramas, comedie ...

, a take-off on '' One Fine Day'' starring Michelle Pfeiffer and

George Clooney George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by George Clooney, numerous accolades, including a British Academy Film Awards, British Academy Film A ...

. She has also acted in

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

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 #MeToo is a social movement against sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and rape culture, in which people publicize their experiences of sexual abuse or sexual harassment. The phrase "Me Too" was initially used in this context on social media in ...

Razdan said that once she was nearly raped by someone on a film set. Though they didn't succeed, she didn't file a complaint against this attempt to rape.

Personal life

Razdan married Indian film director

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 and the distant aunt of

Emraan Hashmi Emraan Anwar Hashmi (; born 24 March 1979) is an Indian actor who appears predominantly in Hindi cinema. Hashmi debuted in 2003 with the crime thriller film ''Footpath'' and subsequently appeared in films include ''Murder'' (2004), '' Kalyug'' ...

Filmography

Films

Director

Television

1995 Saahil

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Razdan, Soni Living people 1956 births People from Birmingham, West Midlands British people of Indian descent British people of Kashmiri descent Converts to Islam British Muslims British people of German descent Bhatt family British film actresses British television actresses British women film directors British actresses of Indian descent British emigrants to India British expatriate actresses in India European actresses in India European actresses in Bollywood Actresses of European descent in Indian films Actresses of European descent in Bollywood films Actresses in Hindi cinema Hindi-language film directors Actresses in Hindi television 20th-century British actresses 21st-century British actresses