Soni Razdan says she 'paid the price' for wanting to be an 'actor, not a star'; nobody wanted to 'launch' her| Interview

She has spent four decades in the film industry, but Soni Razdan says she was written off very early. The veteran actor, currently starring in the film Om Ka Hari, talks to Hindustan Times about how her acting journey began and why she faced difficulties because she wanted to be an actor first rather than a star.

Soni was 25 when she made her film 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 actor 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 actor 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.”

However, this led to many in the industry telling her that since she had done a Shyam Benegal film, she could no longer be a mainstream film 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.

However, in 1984, she starred in Saaransh, directed by Mahesh Bhatt. The film, which also marked the breakthrough roles for Anupam Kher and Rohini Hattangadi, earned Soni a Filmfare Award nomination as well as recognition. Talking about the 1984 film, 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.”

The actor 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.

Soni’s new film, Om Ka Hari, directed by Harish Vyas, has been released in theatres this Friday. It also stars Anshuman Jha, Raghubir Yadav, and Ayesha Kapur in a pivotal role. The film 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 release on September 25.

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.