Bollywood Flashback: The Hushed Wedding of Mahesh Bhatt & Soni Razdan

Celebrity marriages have always been a keen point of interest for all the movie lovers. They love to relish the spicy gossips related to their favourite celebrities. While few of these celebrities tied their knot in a very grandiose manner, most of them ended up doing it in a totally secretive manner. The marriage of today’s superstar Alia Bhatt’s parents – Mahesh Bhatt & Soni Razdan, was also among the secret weddings, which generated lots of sensation in the film world.

Producer-Director Nanabhai Bhatt’s elder son Mahesh Bhatt started his career by making product advertisements. He later assisted popular film director Raj Khosla in the early 70’s by working in some popular films like ‘Mera Gaon Mera Desh’ (1971) & ‘Do Chor’ (1972). He finally got his independent break with the film ‘Manzilein Aur Bhi Hain’ (1974), after which we there was no looking back for this great director. Much before his entry into the glamorous world, Mahesh met Lorraine Bright and fell in love with her. Mahesh was just twenty years old when he married Lorraine Bright (who changed her name to Kiran) and the very next year Pooja Bhatt was born.

After this phase of Mahesh’s life, he entered the world of Hindi cinema. Things were looking promising until one by one, every film of Mahesh flopped at the box office. His relationship with Kiran was on doldrums and at that time he got involved with popular actress Parveen Babi. The time Mahesh spent with Parveen had its romantic moments but had more thorns than petals. But this inspired Mahesh to make his next film ‘Arth’ (1982), which ended up being the real beginning of Mahesh Bhatt the director. The success also marked the return of Mahesh in Kiran’s life and at that time Rahul was born. The sweetness lasted for a short while and the bitter part of marriage started to traumatize both of them. Still they were there together for the children’s sake. It was at that time that Mahesh met Soni Razdan.

Soni Razdan was a British born Indian, who made her mark as an actress in ’36 Chowringhee Lane’ (1981) followed by Mandi (1983). Her association with these meaningful cinema introduced her to Mahesh and together they were working on his next film ‘Saaransh’ (1984). Mahesh started liking the intellectual company of Soni and after a while both were in love with each other. The news of this extra-marital affair of Mahesh started spreading across. Thus, the couple kept meeting in secret places like the unused house of Pritish Nandy, who was the editor of ‘The Illustrated Weekly of India’.

Mahesh had lost his trust in the institution of marriage and Soni supported his views. The couple were not able to hide their love and at that moment Soni’s parents intervened the whole situation. They were worried about their daughter as they knew that Mahesh was married and had children. Mahesh assured them that he will not leave Soni and would marry her. Mahesh tried his level best but, was not able to divorce Kiran as he loved his children Pooja and Rahul. It was at that time his friends suggested him to change his religion and convert into Islam. Mahesh’s mother was a Muslim and thus, it was not hard for him to do that.

In mid of 1986, Mahesh Bhatt converted himself into Asraf Bhatt and married Sakina (Soni Razdan’s Muslim name). After the secret Nikaah the couple celebrated their marriage by booking an Emerald-Jade room at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, where Soni’s family members, her high society friends (which incuded Kiran Kher, Nandini Sen, etc), few of Mahesh’s friends (including Salim Khan, Suraj Sanim, Kuljeet Pal, etc) and Mahesh’s younger brother Mukesh were only present. The Nikkah was so secretive that Mukesh’s own family was not present and Mahesh’s first wife Kiran was not even aware of it. As per Mahesh, Soni was reluctant about sharing the marriage news to Kiran and thus the couple decided to let her know after a few days. The very next day Mahesh left for work as he was editing ‘Naam’ (1986) and had a shoot coming up in Ooty for his next film ‘Kaash’ (1987). Thus, the couple missed out on the immediate honeymoon, which eventually ended up in the form of a working honeymoon. Later, the official news of Mahesh Bhatt’s marriage with Soni Razdan was featured in a film magazine which was among the top sensational news of that time. Luckily for Mahesh this marriage worked for him and together the couple formed their love nest in Versova area of Mumbai. (The couple are blessed with two daughters Shaheen and Alia).

Fun Facts –

The romance part in the movie ‘Aashiqui’ (1990) was inspired from Mahesh Bhatt’s real life romance with Lorraine Bright (Kiran Bhatt).

Mahesh also used some references of his relationship with Parveen Babi in films like ‘Arth’ (1982), ‘Phir Teri Kahani Yaad Aayee’ & ‘Woh Lamhe’.

Mahesh and Soni worked in several films like ‘Saaransh’ (1984), ‘Aashiana’ (1986), ‘Kaash’ (1987), ‘Daddy’ (1989), Saathi (1991), ‘Sadak’ (1991), ‘Swayam’ (1991), ‘Sir’ (1993), ‘Gumrah’ (1993), ‘Gunaah’ (1993),’ Naaraz’ (1994), ‘Papa Kahte Hain’ (1996) and few more.

Soni Razdan directed a film ‘Nazar’ (2005), starring Ashmit Patel and Pakistani actress Meera. She was going to direct ‘Difficult Daughters’, which was based on the popular novel by Manju Kapur.

Sanjeev Kumar was the original choice for the role of Anupam Kher in ‘Saaransh’ (1984).

Source