Soni Razdan said that she gave Alia Bhatt a “typical middle-class upbringing” as there was “never any excess money.”
Soni Razdan
Alia Bhatt comes from a long-standing Bollywood film family. The actress's father is Mahesh Bhatt, a filmmaker, and her mother is Soni Razdan, an actor. While Alia Bhatt's life may seem 'luxurious' to others given her family, her mother, Soni Razdan, said that she gave Alia Bhatt a “typical middle-class upbringing” as there was “never any excess money.”
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Soni Razdan made Alia Bhatt travel by economy class as child
While chatting with Rashmi Uchil for her latest book Rasing Stars, Soni spoke about an incident where she was traveling to Dubai with her two daughters, Alia and Shahee, they could not afford three business class tickets, she made her daughters travel in economy class. She said, "Once, we were travelling to Dubai and could not afford three business-class tickets. I told my children, ‘I will travel first class, and you guys travel economy.’ They made a face. When I went to check on them, I saw the lady in the seat right in front of them had reclined her seat, and these children had hardly any space in front of them. I told my children, ‘Why don’t you ask her to straighten her seat? Are you guys okay?’ They were miffed and retorted, ‘Why are you asking us how we are doing? We will not tell her anything.’ The lady in front of them was a senior citizen, and they felt bad telling her to straighten her seat. It wasn’t a big deal at all.”
Soni Razdan shared her views on the same and said, "My logic was that you have not earned enough to travel in business class as yet. Once you earn enough to afford the business class fare, please travel in business class. Simple as that.”
Soni Razdan mentioned that they “never had plenty, but we managed fine.” Soni Razdan made it a point to insist that her two children "had a normal, regular middle-class upbringing.”
“They had a normal, regular middle-class upbringing. There was never any excess money. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment until 2004.” Soni only said that “money started coming in” after Mahesh Bhatt turned producer, and even then, he had two families to look after. Mahesh was previously married and had two children from his previous marriage, Pooja Bhatt and Rahul Bhatt.
Soni Razdan shared that during that time, she drove a Maruti Zen and took her kids to school herself. “I’m glad my children had a typical middle-class upbringing, as that was the way I was brought up too. My husband had a car and a driver to take him to work. I had Zen. I’d drive the children to school and pick them up too,” she added.