Soni Razdan draws parallels with daughter Alia Bhatt as she shares throwback picture

Mumbai, Sep 23 (IANS) Actress Soni Razdan on Tuesday shared a collage that beautifully captures two generations herself in a vintage throwback picture alongside a shot of her superstar daughter Alia Bhatt.

Soni took to Instagram to share a series of images from her younger days. However, it was the fourth picture that caught everyone’s attention due to her uncanny resemblance to Alia.

In the photograph, the left side of the frame showed a young Soni in a classic pose, while the right side featured Alia in an elegant look, dressed in an embellished outfit.

“Came across these blasts from the past,” Soni wrote as the caption.

Soni Razdan married filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt in 1986 after the two met through a mutual friend. She is the mother of Alia, Shaheen Bhatt and the step mother of Pooja Bhatt & Rahul Bhatt.

Mother-daughter duo Alia and Soni’s “Difficult Daughters,” is being presented at Busan’s Asian Project Market. The project is adapted from Manju Kapur’s acclaimed novel.

“Difficult Daughters,” which is set in two different timelines, focuses on the story of Virmati, the eldest of ten children in a traditional Punjabi household in 1940s Lahore. Determined to pursue education and love, she challenges societal norms, only to face unforeseen consequences when she becomes the second wife of a married professor.

In 2022, her granddaughter Simar faces a failing marriage and a secret affair; discovering Virmati’s hidden past forces her to confront her estranged mother, Ila.

Razdan told variety.com that Kapur’s novel instantly started a visual reaction.

“When I read the book many years ago, at that time it struck me as being very cinematically written. It is descriptive in a way that evokes the inner landscape of the characters as well as the outer, actual canvas.”

She said she found herself visualising the story long before she thought of “making it into a film.”

Razdan added: “While a nation was on the verge of attaining its independence, we have a young girl fighting for the same rights… However at its core, this film is a personal story, or rather – stories – that are set in two different time periods.”

She talked about the authenticity in recreating the past.

“1940’s small town Amritsar in Punjab has to be recreated, but in parallel, the casting is key. So actors, costumes, and set design are the most important elements particularly for ‘Difficult Daughters.’ And last but not least, the music… there is huge opportunity here to be really out of the box in terms of how we go about marrying past and present.”

–IANS

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