Published: 09:21 AM, 18 May 2026
Soni Razdan responds to criticism targeting Alia Bhatt
After making headlines for her appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, actor Alia Bhatt found herself at the centre of social media chatter, with trolls taking aim at her fashion choices and some even claiming she was “ignored” by a section of photographers on the red carpet. Amid the online buzz, Alia’s mother, Soni Razdan, has now reacted to the criticism.
On Saturday, writer Shunali Khullar Shroff took to Instagram to put out a post defending Alia against the backlash. She shared the post with a caption that read, “Alia Bhatt at Cannes, our bruised national pride over imagined slights, and then glee that a female star was shown her place — some thoughts. #cannes2026.”
In the post, Shunali wrote, “Alia Bhatt wasn’t ignored at Cannes. But India revealed something about itself. A clip went viral showing photographers distracted while Alia posed at Cannes. Within minutes, the internet decided: ‘She got snubbed, the West doesn’t care, she was humbled’. One distracted camera angle and the Indian internet began decoding national humiliation.”
“People weren’t just discussing the clip. They were enjoying it. We are obsessed with Western validation. And equally obsessed with cutting our own stars down to size. Is it not obvious? Cannes red carpets are chaos. Photographers shout, redirect, multitask, miss people, chase bigger arrivals, and adjust angles constantly. This is not the United Nations ranking of global celebrity worth. But no! We must attach meaning to photographers appearing momentarily distracted,” the post further read.
Shunali mentioned that people mocked Alia over the clip with comments such as “she thinks she is international” and “reality check”.
“The irony? Alia Bhatt is already one of India’s biggest stars. A national award winner. Global ambassador. International campaigns. Massive films (highly unlikely she’s pegging her worth to your opinion of her Cannes moment). Hate to bring gender into it, but indulge me. We are obsessed with watching successful women “brought down a notch”. You can dislike celebrity culture. You can dislike nepotism debates. You can dislike Cannes influencer excess. But inventing humiliation where there was none says more about us than about her. Maybe the problem isn’t whether Cannes noticed Alia Bhatt. Maybe the problem is how badly we need Cannes to. And how quickly imagined rejection turns into entertainment when the woman involved is successful, visible and admired,” it ended.
