{"id":530930,"date":"2026-07-08T08:50:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/530930\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T08:50:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T08:50:09","slug":"soni-razdan-gets-candid-about-wanting-to-work-with-shyam-benegal-i-dyed-my-hair-did-everything-i-could-but-he-didnt-look-at-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/530930\/","title":{"rendered":"Soni Razdan gets candid about wanting to work with Shyam Benegal: \u2018 I dyed my hair, did everything I could, but he didn\u2019t look at me\u2019 |"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SoniSoni Razdan opened up about how she dyed her hair in order to star in Shyam Benegal’s film and look more like the actresses he usually worked with. (Instagram) Shyam Benegal<\/a> was one of the most revered and respected filmmakers in the country. Many actors and actresses were vying to be cast in his films; however, at the time, only a few select stars were considered for the roles. Taking this into account, veteran star Soni Razdan<\/a> shared the kind of lengths she went to in order to be cast in one of Benegal\u2019s features.<\/p>\n

Soni Razdan shares whow she dyed her hair to work with Shyam Benegal<\/p>\n

Soni Razdan, who starred in Shyam Benegal\u2019s \u2018Mandi\u2019 once went to extreme lengths to be considered by him for a role. The actress, while in conversation with The Indian Express SCREEN, shared that she once even dyed her hair in order to fit the \u2018type\u2019 of heroines Benegal usually cast in his films.At the time, as his choice for the leading role in his films, used to go for Shabana Azmi and Smita Patil, and Razdan did not really feel that she fit the type. She shared, \u201cThe way I looked, especially in those days, was a complete anomaly to the Smita-Shabana prototype. I guess that was what he wanted.\u201dFurther on she added that she even dyed her hair specially so that she had more of a chance in being cast. \u201cI remember I dyed my hair black so that I could look more like that, but he didn\u2019t think so. I used to wear cotton saris and silver jewellery. I did everything I could, but he didn\u2019t look at me the same way. So, what could I do? I tried. It was my bad\u201d, she also mentioned.Despite everything, the veteran star did in fact work in two of Benegal\u2019s films. She starred in \u2018Mandi\u2019 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. She also appeared in \u2018Trikal\u2019 which was released in 1985. While talking about her experience filming, Razdan shared that \u201cWe\u2019d just wait with bated breath before he\u2019d decide where to place which actor because there are so many of us. It was a wonderful experience.\u201dOn the work front, the actress and director appeared on the big screen last year in \u2018Songs of Paradise.\u2019 She also last starred in the OTT series, \u2018Brown\u2019 this year, and played the role of Janice Brown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soni Razdan opened up about how she dyed her hair in order to star in Shyam Benegal’s film…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530931,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[146,85,17499,46,242305,397,108281,20095,242306],"class_list":["post-530930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-indian-cinema","tag-israel","tag-mandi-film","tag-movies","tag-shyam-benegal","tag-soni-razdan","tag-trikal-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=530930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}