Some faces are trends. Others are timeless. The photo is of younger Sonia and the woman she is today.
There is no decline. Sonia Sahni entered Hindi cinema in mid-60s. She was spotted by I. S. Johar and launched in
Johar-Mehmood in Goa. From the very beginning there was nothing timid about her. She carried a distinctly urban confidence, convent-educated, sharp-featured, poised, the kind of woman who did not shrink herself to fit the frame. That early on-screen kiss created headlines in a far more conservative era, but she wore the controversy lightly.
While in the 70s she moved across films like Buddha Mil Gaya and later Dharam Karam with an ease that combined glamour and intelligence, then came Bobby, where she played Rishi Kapoor’s mother while still exuding leading-lady allure.
Only that era could cast such paradox, and only someone with her presence could make it believable. Off screen, her life had its own sweep. Briefly engaged to Shammi Kapoor, she later chose a different path, marrying Shivendra Singh Goyal of the Palitana royal family, stepping away from cinema into a life of dignity, eventually becoming Rajmata and raising her son Ketan away from arc lights. No noisy farewell, no desperate comeback arc. Just a deliberate shift. And in her recent photographs, age has not erased her sharpness. The gaze is intact. The carriage is intact. The confidence is intact. Stardom may belong to a time, but presence, when it is real, does not negotiate with it.
News Edit KV Raman
