Soni Razdan says she made Alia Bhatt travel in economy class as a child because she hadn’t ‘earned enough’: ‘There was never any excess money’

Alia Bhatt grew up in the world of movies as her father Mahesh Bhatt is a filmmaker and mother Soni Razdan is an actor. Even though Alia’s life looked luxurious to others, her mother recalled that she gave her children a “typical middle-class upbringing” as there was “never any excess money.”

In a chat with Rashmi Uchil for her book Raising Stars: The Challenges and Joys of Being A Bollywood Parent, Soni recalled an incident when she was traveling to Dubai with her daughters Alia and Shaheen but since they could not afford three business-class tickets, she made her kids travel in economy. “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 shared her point of view behind getting her kids to travel economy and said, “My logic was 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.”

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Soni Razdan said that they “never had plenty, but we managed fine,” and added that her two children “had a normal, regular middle-class upbringing.” She shared that “there was never any excess money. We lived in a two-bedroom apartment until 2004.” Soni said that “money started coming in” only after Mahesh turned producer and even then, he had two households to look after. Mahesh was previously married to Kiran Bhatt with whom he has two kids – Pooja Bhatt and Rahul Bhatt.

Soni said that during that time she had a Maruti Zen and drove her kids to school in that car 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 a Zen. I’d drive the children to school and pick them up too,” she said.

Soni Razdan was last seen in the Ishan Khatter-starrer Pippa.