Soni Razdan says she 'paid the price' for wanting to be an 'actor, not a star'; nobody wanted to 'launch' her| Interview
Here's the latest update from the Bollywood world:
She has spent four decades in the movie industry, but Soni Razdan says she was written off very early. The veteran star, currently starring in the movie Om Ka Hari, talks to Hindustan Times about how her acting journey began and why she faced difficulties because she wanted to be an star first rather than a star.
Adding to this, Soni Razdan began her movie career with supporting roles in her first few films. Soni Razdan's beginnings Soni was 25 when she made her movie debut with Aparna Sen’s 36 Chowringhee Lane in a supporting role. She followed it up with supporting roles in Esmayeel Shroff’s Ahista Ahista and Shyam Benegal ’s Mandi. The star says it was a conscious choice to go for these films. “I’m not saying I didn’t want to be a star, but I wanted to be an star first. Then, you want to have the stardom along with that. That just gives you better roles, better opportunities, more power. That’s just the way I look at it.”
Meanwhile, However, this led to many in the industry telling her that since she had done a Shyam Benegal movie, she could no longer be a mainstream movie heroine. "At some point, what happens is that you do a couple of films and then you are told: ‘You didn’t go down the right road’. I never got it. Why does there have to be one way to be a so-called star? You should not be seen before, and then you should be launched, like a rocket. And since you did a role in Shyam Benegal’s movie, you can’t be launched and can’t be a star. I did not understand that at all. I was doing theatre. I was going wherever I got work, and I wanted to do good work, so I worked with Shyam Benegal and others. So then, I couldn’t be launched,” recalls Soni.
Notably, However, in 1984, she starred in Saaransh, directed by Mahesh Bhatt. The movie, which also marked the breakthrough roles for Anupam Kher and Rohini Hattangadi, collected Soni a Filmfare Award nomination as well as recognition. Talking about the 1984 movie, she says, “I was lucky because that was kind of a launch, even though I had done a few films before that. But everyone has their own journey.”
As per the latest buzz, The star says she still believes there should not be a single way to reach stardom. “There can’t be one way that you have to do everything. I just never believed in that. Maybe I have suffered and paid the price for it, I don’t know,” she adds.
In further updates, Soni’s new movie, Om Ka Hari, directed by Harish Vyas, has been rolled out in theatres this Friday. It also stars Anshuman Jha, Raghubir Yadav, and Ayesha Kapur in a pivotal role. The movie is currently running in theatres. She will be next seen in the Netflix show Shaque. It marks Parineeti Chopra’s web series debut and is set to rollout on September 25.
On top of that, Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Movie Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world. Read More
Source: Hindustan Times