Shyam Benegal he was one of the most revered and respected filmmakers in the country. Many actors and actresses competed to be cast in their films; however, at the time, only a select few stars were considered for the roles. With that in mind, veteran star Sony Razdan shared the kind of lengths she went to in order to be cast in one of Benegal’s shots.
Soni Razdan shares how she dyed her hair to work with Shyam Benegal
Soni Razdan, who starred in Shyam Benegal’s ‘Mandi’, went to great lengths to be considered by him for a role. The actress, while chatting with The Indian Express SCREEN, shared that she once even dyed her hair to match the ‘type’ of heroines that Benegal used to cast in his films.At that time, as a choice for the lead role in his films, he used to go for Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, and Razdan didn’t really feel that she fit the type. She shared, “My look, especially in those days, was a complete anomaly to the Smita-Shabana prototype. I guess that’s what I wanted.”Later, she added that she even dyed her hair especially so that she would have a better chance of being cast. “I remember dying my hair black so I could look more like that, but he didn’t think so. I wore cotton saris and silver jewelry. I did everything I could, but he didn’t look at me the same way. So what could I do? I tried. It was my villain,” he also commented.Despite all that, the veteran star actually worked in two of Benegal’s films. He starred in ‘Mandi’ which was released in 1983 and revolved around a brothel and starred Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil as well as Ratna Pathak, Neena Gupta, Sreela Majumdar, Anita Kanwar and Ila Arun to name a few. He also appeared in ‘Trikal’, which was released in 1985. While talking about his experience on the set, Razdan shared that, “We would wait with bated breath before deciding where to place which actor because there are so many of us. It was a wonderful experience.”On the work front, the actress and director appeared on the big screen last year in ‘Songs of Paradise’. She also last starred in the OTT series, ‘Brown’ this year, playing the role of Janice Brown.