Raazi: Alia Bhatt's mother Soni Razdan opens up on sharing screen space with her

Mumbai: Veteran actor Soni Razdan is proud of her daughter Alia Bhatt's career choices, which are not governed by the "star" persona she has earned in her six-year-long Bollywood career.

When it comes to picking up projects, the 61-year-old actor says Alia, 25, completely relies on her instincts.

"I'm quite impressed by the way she has managed to choose her films correctly. She has done everything very instinctively. She has very strong instincts and she relies on them. The quality I really admire in her is, if she wants to do something she will do it with all heart. If not, she won't," Razdan told PTI.

Starting from her acting debut as a lead in 'Student of the Year', Alia has given back-to-back hits. The only box office debacle she has faced till now is Vikas Bahl's 2015 film 'Shaandaar.'

Razdan is happy with the way Alia's career is shaping up, but feels it is "okay" for the young actor to face failures.

"Failure is a part of life. Nobody wants to make a film that doesn't work. It doesn't mean you didn't do your best or everyone on that set didn't. Take it on the chin. She (Alia) has been fortunate enough to not have many failures. But it's okay to fail as much as it's okay to be successful," she says.

Razdan, who has shared screen space with Alia for the first time in director Meghna Gulzar's 'Raazi', says she always knew her daughter would pursue acting.

"She used to dance and was always a performer. I thought she could be an actor when she was just two-and-a-half years old," she adds.

Talking about working with Alia, Razdan, who plays her on-screen mother in the film, says they did not bring their personal relationship on the sets.

"When I am on set, something else takes over. The external world fades away. So she wasn't Alia and I wasn't Soni. We were Sehmat and Teji."

'Raazi', a period thriller, is an adaptation of Harinder Sikka's novel 'Calling Sehmat', about an Indian spy married to a Pakistani military officer during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.

The film, also starring Vicky Kaushal, releases on May 11.